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-“Fishing Facts” 

By SHERIDAN R. JONES 

(Published February 15, 1923) 

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The Camper s Manual” 

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(Published June 1, 1923) 

Book 

6- 

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By CHARLES ASKINS 

(Published June 8, 1923) 

Book 

7- 

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By MAJ. TOWNSEND WHELEN 

(Published June 15, 1923) 

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Outers’-Recreation Outdoor Library 


Wing Shooting 


By 

Capt. Charles Askins 


CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 

THE OUTERS’ BOOK COMPANY 

500 NORTH DEARBORN ST. 








Copyright, 1923 
by 

THE OUTERS’ BOOK COMPANY 
All rights reserved 


© Cl A757640 

SEP 22 1923 


To 

FRED KIMBLE, 

the greatest wingshot that 
America ever produced 


FOREWORD 


T HIS book is necessarily short, while the subject is 
long, for it includes all branches of wingshooting 
except from the trap. At best a man can get no more 
than good hints from a book, and whether these benefit 
him or not depends on his ability to put into practice 
what the author preaches. The only way to learn to 
shoot is to shoot, profiting by misses no less than by hits. 
The very best teacher of wingshooting is plenty of game 
to shoot at, and rare indeed is the man who fails to 
acquire skill when opportunities to practice are ample. 
As any man who has shot at the traps knows, an expert 
and friendly coach who will stand beside us and point 
out errors is by far the best teacher, but all of us cannot 
be so blessed in field shooting, but like the English in the 
late war will have to “muddle through” to final success. 

In the matter of guns and patterns for one kind of 
shooting and another, this book should prevent vital 
errors. Seventy-five per cent of the youngsters who 
take up wingshooting start in with a gun, a pattern, or a 
load not adapted to the purpose. More than likely the 
novice has selected a gun similar to that of some expert, 
entirely forgetful that time-tried skill will direct one gun 
and ignorance the other—learn to drive a flivver before 
purchasing a racing car. 

The author would like to have gone far more deeply 
into the technical side of wingshooting, into time, con-' 
centration, shooting habit, subconscious aiming, muscle 
and nerve training, but after all this work is for the 
novice, and technicalities would be understood by the 


FOREWORD 


expert only. The best we could do here was to put our 
young friends on the right road, and tell them to travel 
as far and as fast as circumstances would permit. 

It might have been expected that in the simple matter 
of telling where to hold for any given shot that we 
might have given explicit instruction. Yet we know 
very well that the lead now taken by us on waterfowl 
would not have been correct when we ourselves were 
learning to shoot. For example our lead on a passing 
mallard at forty yards is not more than from one to two 
lengths of the fowl, depending on his obvious speed, in 
the old days it would have been fully double that. The 
lead and hold which will best serve the beginner, will 
not be his lead ten years from now, when he will have 
acquired a rapid swing and quick trigger time. Every 
man is a law unto himself in wingshooting, but only 
with experience does the law become fixed and un¬ 
changeable. 

No man, not even the most expert that ever lived, 
ever became as good a wingshot as he would like to have 
been. Therefore do not become discouraged because of 
misses, for all men miss, and all have despaired at times. 
What the veteran remembers, what gives him heart, is 
that if he shoots poorly today he must shoot better to¬ 
morrow, and youth has a world of tomorrows ahead of 
him. 


THE AUTHOR. 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Bagged. Frontispiece 

Line of Aim. 3 

Line of Swing. 5 

Path of Flight. 

Cheekpiece. 11 

Monte Carlo Comb.’.. 15 

Grip Measurements. 17 

Straight Grip. 19 

Stock measurements. 21 

Powers’ Cheek Rest. 21 

Quail and Woodcock Pattern for Beginners. ..... 25 

Quail load, twenty-eight bore. 27 

Ten bore duck load. 29 

Sweeley duck load. 30 

Twenty bore snipe load. 31 

Goose load, 40 yds.. .7. 33 

Super X Record shell, 60 yds. 35 

Super X Goose Load, 70 yds. 36 

Rough Snap. 39 

Half Snap. 41 

Swinging Aim. 43 

Size of Bird and Lead in Proportion to 

Distance. 47 

Missed. 54 

























CONTENTS 


Chapter Page 

Foreword. iv 

I Elementary Principles. i 

II Guns and Gun Fitting. 9 


III Guns for Waterfowl, Guns for Quail, Pat¬ 

tern Performances, Different Gauges... 23 

IV Styles of Shooting, Methods of Aiming, 

Manner of Swing. 37 

V Shooting with the Mind. Self-confidence, 

Shooting Habits. 49 

VI Speed of Birds, Speed of Shot Charge, 

Theoretical Lead. 59 

VII Shooting Quail, Woodcock, Grouse, Snipe 69 

VIII Shooting Ducks and Other Waterfowl. 79 










Bagged 





WING SHOOTING 


Chapter I 

ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES 

I N wing-shooting a moving object is shot at with a 
moving gun. 

Except when being carried along the path of flight, 
as in passing birds, the gun is invariably rising to the 
point of aim. 

Barring the straight-away bird which maintains 
a direct line, neither rising nor falling, a still gun can¬ 
not be held upon a moving mark. On the contrary, 
the gun maintains its aim on the mark automatically, 
provided gun and object change angles at the same 
rate. 

The path of flight is the course the bird has passed 
over when flying. The path of flight is never a straight 
line though it may appear so. 

The line of aim is a straight line from eye to front 
sight thence extending. In shotgun shooting the eye 
may be focussed on a mark to one side or the other 
or above the line of aim. The line of aim changes 
with the moving of the gun; the line of focus and the 
focus changes only with the movement of the mark. 

Except as to straight-away birds, neither rising nor 
falling, or at a stationary mark, the gun is never aimed 
directly at the object to be struck. The charge must 
be so directed as to intercept the mark, and this neces- 

i 


2 


WING SHOOTING 


sitates lead. Lead, then, is the distance we hold ahead 
or above or below in order that shot charge and bird 
shall reach a given point at the same time. Lead 
above or beneath is frequently called an allowance. 

The speed of a shot charge is known or should be, 
and should never vary. This will be taken up later. 
The speed of the mark is variable, changes from kind 
to kind, and varies even with the same bird. The most 
uniform target in speed of flight is an artificial one, 
and hence we have higher scores on clay birds than 
had ever been made on living marks. 

Aim may be taken with both eyes open, or with 
one closed or with one merely squinted. Shooting 
with both eyes open is called binocular aiming. Faster 
shooting, that is a quicker aim can be secured with 
both eyes open, and distances can be more accurately 
judged. Closing one eye is the best means of focussing 
on the front sight or getting a clear view of it. The 
man who shoots with one eye closed or with one eye 
partly closed, and who sees his front sight before plac¬ 
ing it on the mark will have a clear remembrance of 
where he held from actually seeing where his sight 
was, while the man who shoots with both eyes open, 
not seeing his sight, merely knows where he intended to 
hold. Either method of aiming works about equally 
well, for shotgun shooting depends on many things 
besides what the eye does in aiming. 

Time in general terms is that period which elapses 
from the instant the bird breaks cover until the gun 
is fired, or from the first movement of the piece to 
cover the mark until gun is discharged. Time has 
other meanings, as trigger time, lock time, barrel 
time, time that elapses from the pulling of the trigger 
to the emergence of shot frbm the muzzle, and time 
of shot over the course. 



Line of aim 



4 


WING SHOOTING 


Style should refer to the perfection of gun and body 
movements, but as we shall use the term will refer 
mostly to the characteristic method of aiming and 
shooting. We will, therefore, have occasion to refer 
to a quick style, a deliberate style, a pottering style, 
a snap shot, and a swinging shot. Swing will be sub¬ 
divided into deliberate and rapid. . 

Instead of style as embracing the perfection of gun 
and body movements used in shooting we will give 
preference to the term form. A man may be said to 
have beautiful form, graceful form, correct form, or 
poor form. Form is also sometimes used in a com¬ 
parative sense, as the man was in poor form—meaning 
in poor form for him. 

Position and posture. Many learn to shoot from 
faulty positions. So long as the position is effective 
this need concern only the shooter, but when learning 
to shoot the novice had as well acquire good and cor¬ 
rect positions as poor ones. Practically all wing shoot¬ 
ing is done from the standing position, though now 
and then the marksman may be forced to fire when 
kneeling or even reclining or sitting up as in a sink- 
box. One marksman may stand erect when shooting, 
while another will lean far forward. One man will 
place his feet pretty close together, while another 
has them far apart. Any position will do so long as 
it is easy, putting the muscles under no undue strain. 
Freak positions are to be avoided, for they are never 
natural and are made effective only through a long 
course of unnecessary training. 

Mechanical execution includes nine-tenths of rifle 
shooting and one-half of shotgun shooting. The man 
who can invariably shoot where he knows his charge 
ought to go, doing this promptly, gracefully, with the 
least effort, has perfect mechanical execution. Except 



Line of swing 









6 


WING SHOOTING 


as to the grace and the lack of effort, our trap shots 
have the finest mechanical execution known. No field 
or marsh shot can compare with them, though it must 
be admitted that the live game man has far more 
difficulties to contend with, and his gun and body 
movements are more complicated because he cannot 
stand with piece at shoulder nor get his bird at the 
word ■pull. 

Mechanical excellence comes from doing something 
in a precise way, never changing, until all processes 
become automatic. All movements must be practiced 
until they become subconsciously governed. Move¬ 
ments and aim are then said to be intuitive, and the 
shooter himself could not tell you what movements he 
has made, and very often cannot tell where he held. 
He has passed the stage of conscious mechanical effort. 
No man can force himself into perfect mechanical 
effort, neither the marksman nor any other sort of 
mechanic. He has to train into form by persistent 
repetition, slowly and deliberately at first, as the mind 
dictates and the eye governs, but gradually conscious 
effort gives place to a far superior subconscious con¬ 
trol. Our man is now a gun juggler, a slight of hand, 
performer, an expert who amazes us or would amaze 
us if he knew as well where to hold as he does how 
to handle his gun. If every bird could invariably be 
killed by a foot lead or by a two foot lead our mechan- , 
ical expert would do the most wonderful things that 
have ever been accomplished in game shooting. 
Fortunately or unfortunately, as we may look at it, 
no man gets enough practice today to judge lead in¬ 
tuitively; he must constantly use judgment as to where 
to hold, and right there is where his mistakes and his 
misses come in. 

In basic principle we have two methods of directing 


ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES 


7 



a shot gun. The one might be termed intuitive aiming 
and the other eye-governed aiming. Rifle shooting is 
accomplished for the most part by means of eye- 
governed aiming. The marksman lines up his sights, 
sees the target and endeavors to bring the sights to 
bear long enough to press the trigger. If he cannot do 
this and his sights drift off, he maintains his view of 
the sights most distinctly and sees the target less dis¬ 
tinctly. Some shotgun shooters do the same thing. 
They level the gun, see the front sight or they may 
have two sights, one behind the other, as a bead rear 
sight, and having done this bring the sight to bear on 
the bird. If forced to lead the mark, they keep the 
sights in plain view and have the bird less plainly in 
view. The other method is to fix the eye on the mark, 
seeing little if anything else. If forced to lead, the 
gun is brought up to .one side of the bird or it is swung 
past the bird, but the focus of the eye does not change 
and the bird is always seen most distinctly and the 
direction of the gun is known intuitively or through 




8 


WING SHOOTING 


long experience in gun pointing. A man can look at a 
mark and shoot a foot to one side or two feet or three 
feet, or if he cannot do that he must learn to do so, 
for that is one of the things the shotgun man should 
be able to do. 

Shotgun movements are not very complicated and 
should apparently be acquired with the utmost facility. 
They can readily be practiced when no game is present, 
and such drill might well be followed. Select a mark, 
walk toward it, stop, raise the gun, aim and pull the 
trigger. Vary that by walking past, aiming from one 
side and then the other. Change and walk away from 
the target, whirling on it. While the movements are 
simple their absolute accuracy is not simple, else the 
rifleman could invariably hit the center. The closing 
movement is a body movement, the body being poised 
on the feet, pivoted upon them, and swinging from side 
to side or up or-down. A body movement is less jerky 
than when motion is controlled by the arms, and can 
better be gauged and controlled. 


Chapter II 


GUNS AND GUN FITTING 

O F course it would be difficult to do wing shooting 
without a gun, though it might be done and has 
been attempted with a rifle. The gun should be 
adapted to the work in bore, fit and pattern, hence 
the necessity of treating this branch of wing shooting, 
though we propose to do so briefly. 

Guns can be classified in general terms as repeating 
shotguns and double barrels. Repeaters, subdivided 
into pump guns and automatics, are widely used in 
America. They are the most deadly shotguns made 
anywhere in the world. About the ethics of using them, 
particularly in upland shooting, opinions would differ, 
and we are not prepared to handle this subject from 
an ethical standpoint. The United States practically 
has a monopoly of building repeating shotguns, though 
the Browning automatic is made in Belgium and a few 
of these are imported. 

The pump repeater is only less deadly than the 
automatic, being nearly as fast in the hands of one 
accustomed to using it. Many believe that magazine 
shotguns larger than twenty bore should be confined to 
wild fowl shooting, and we are inclined to hold our¬ 
selves that no gun larger than a twenty gauge is really 
needed in upland shooting. More ducks by odds can 
be killed with an automatic than with any other gun; 
also more ducks will be crippled, since the reserve 
cartridges leads to many chances being taken. In the 

9 


IO 


WING SHOOTING 


uplands not enough difference will be found to warrant 
the increased weight of a large bore magazine arm. 

Double guns would once have been divided into 
hammerless and hammer guns, but the arms with out¬ 
side hammers are now practically obsolete. Double 
guns are made in all bores from twenty-eight to ten, 
and all have their uses and admirers. The twenty- 
eight gauge has its adherents, but these will always 
be limited in numbers, the little gun having less power 
than a twenty and no other advantage except a bit 
lighter weight and lessened recoil. It makes up into 
a very attractive ladies’ gun, and is a very good arm 
for a boy to begin shooting with, since he is then not 
so liable to develop flinching. In full choke it will 
kill nicely up to thirty-five yards 

The great bulk of the duck shooting is now accom¬ 
plished with twelve bores and probably always will 
be. The twelve gauge double duck gun now handles 
anywhere from an ounce to an ounce and three-eighths 
of shot, with a killing range in the heavier guns and 
heaviest loads up to a full sixty yards. No smaller 
bore can be made to at all equal it for marsh shooting, 
and it is the real American duck and trap gun. Also, 
if there is any such a thing as an all-around gun, it is 
the twelve, in a moderate weight, shooting a moderate 
load. For quail, snipe, grouse, woodcock, and like 
game, however, the twelve has unnecessary power and 
unneeded weight. 

The sixteen and twenty bores find their uses in the 
field, though either will kill ducks on a pinch At 
present these two gauges have almost the same power, 
each shooting an ounce of shot as the limit. The six¬ 
teen will handle more shot, however, up to an ounce 
and an eighth, and it seems probable that such loads 
will shortly appear. In that case the sixteen would 


Cheekpiece 






12 


WING SHOOTING 


come as close as any to being an all-around gun, a 
large load of big shot for ducks, and a standard load 
for quail. 

For the past five years my own upland shooting 
has been accomplished entirely with a twenty bore, 
and I cannot see that a larger gauge is needed. It will 
kill regularly up to forty yards, and forty yard shots 
are rare with quail, woodcock, grouse or snipe. The 
full ounce of shot which the twenty bow handles per¬ 
mits the gun to be opened up to an improved cylinder, 
which will yet throw an-effective pattern up to ordinary 
game ranges. 

The ten bore is not required for shooting ducks 
or other waterfowl over decoys. When the fowl come 
in under fifty yards the twelve is as sure of the bird 
as an eight bore. Nevertheless, the big ten is a fascin¬ 
ating weapon for pass shooting. Properly loaded, and 
cartridges are now being developed for it throwing an 
ounce and five-eighths of big shot, the ten will fool 
the wisest old mallard by reaching a little farther than 
he thinks possible. I am not aware of a greater pleasure 
than to stand on a shooting pass and take everything 
that comes under seventy-five yards. The ten gauge 
is the gun for the man who is ambitious to learn lead 
and swing' beyond twelve bore limitations. On the 
score of sportsmanship, as compared with the repeat¬ 
ing shotgun, the ten bore man is on safe ground. 

Shotgun Refinements 

Shotgun refinements might be thought to include 
fancy stocks, ornamental engraving, and high finish. 
We intend to leave all this to the taste and the pocket- 
book of the owner. No field or marsh gun ought to 
be so highly beautified as to make the owner reluctant 
to give it hard service. In trap guns go the limit. 


GUNS AND GUN FITTING 


13 


We will confine ourselves here to refinements that are 
useful. We will, however, assert that no gun can be 
too highly finished on the inside, in the adjustment 
and polishing of bolts and locks, in the tuning of 
ejectors and sears, in the freeing of all working parts 
from undue friction, and in the joining of wood to 
steel and steel to steel. All such -refinements mean a 
longer and sounder life for the arm. As to the appear¬ 
ance of guns, we can only add, don’t buy a cheap gun 
if you can afford a better one. 

Ejectors 

We are terming ejectors a refinement, though in 
reality they should be considered a necessity. All 
our better makes of firearms, like the Fox, Smith, 
Ithaca, Parker, have ejectors that have been tried and 
tested in long and strenuous service. They work and 
keep working. Ejectors should be considered stand¬ 
ard and placed on all double guns. A double gun 
lacking ejectors is deficient in a feature essential to 
perfect service. 

Single Trigger 

The single trigger is not an unmixed blessing when 
it works, which some of them do not. I am very fond 
of a single trigger, however. It adds to stock fit, since 
both barrels have the same pull and reach. It enables 
the shooter to keep the same grip of stock, and furthers 
gun balance and even accuracy of pointing. The weak¬ 
ness of this device is that, except with malice afore¬ 
thought, the gunner cannot shift barrels. I have 
owned a half dozen different models of single trigger, 
one shifting with a Greener safety on the side of the 
frame, and another with a slide in place of a top safety- 
slide, and never had time to shift barrels after a bird 


WING SHOOTING 


H 

broke cover. I have used one single trigger for twelve 
years, and in that time the right barrel has been shot 
first ninety-nine times in the hundred. This is more 
or less a hardship when a gun is bored with one barrel 
cylinder and the other full choke, where now and 
then it would be highly desirable to shoot the full 
choked barrel first. I haven’t any doubt but if single 
triggers were standard and always had been that 
shooters would consider two triggers a highly desirable 
improvement, thus giving them an instant choice of 
barrels. Not being willing to be bothered by trying 
to shift triggers, one of my guns thus fitted had both 
barrels bored improved cylinder, another had both 
barrels bored quarter choke, a third both barrels bored 
full choke, and a fourth one barrel quarter choke and 
the other three quarters. 

Rubber Recoil Pads 

A rubber cheek pad is worthless unless the gun 
was a mighty bad fit in the first place. Rubber butt- 
plates are not needed on any quail gun unless it is a 
very light twelve bore. On heavily charged duck 
guns they are highly desirable. Coming straight back 
and compressing the buttplate the gun doesn’t jump 
to the same extent as with a hard butt, bruises the 
cheek less and is more readily brought to bear .for the 
second shot. Rubber buttplates are of many makes 
and models, all behaving pretty much alike. 

Sling Straps 

Sportsmen of Continental Europe are accustomed to 
carrying their guns by means of a sling. The idea once 
struck me as a good one and I tried it out. It is a fine 
thing to carry a gun with, to and from the shooting 
ground, if one travels afoot, but the cussed thing was 


Monte Carlo comb 









i6 


WING SHOOTING 


always in my way when I wanted to shoot. I dis¬ 
carded it. 

Stock Fitting 

Most of us have discovered by using a pump gun 
or an automatic that we can shoot a standard drop 
and length of stock without being much handicapped. 
Nevertheless we are not all built precisely alike and 
a man might as well have a gun built to his exact 
measurements if he is having it made to order and 
knows what he ought to have. Freakish stocks are 
generally a mistake, that is, stocks of extreme- length, 
extremely straight or extremely crooked, or with great 
variations from comb to butt. Stocks are cut to order 
with two prime objects in view. One of these objects 
is simply to obtain a fit and the other to correct a 
shooting fault. Trap stocks are made very straight 
with the idea of enabling the marksman to automat¬ 
ically throw his charge high, nearly all birds rising 
when taken. In the same way a shooter who knows 
that he frequently shoots low can correct that fault 
by means of a stock straighter than his natural measure¬ 
ments. 

Men are tall and lanky, fat and short, thick chested 
and flat chested, but I am convinced that the longest 
stock anybody needs is 14% inches, the shortest 13%. 
The greatest drop really required is not more than 2% 
inches at butt, and the straightest stock should have 
not less than a two inch drop. Comb drops rarely 
if ever need to vary more than from inches to i^g. 
In field or duck shooting, a comb drop of F/2. inches 
will suit half the men who shoot. 

The writer has been through the whole mill, with 
stocks that were too crooked and stocks that were too 
straight. One of my guns had a three inch drop, 


Grip measurements, Pistol grip, Fox gun 






















WING SHOOTING 


. 18 

another a drop at butt of i% inches, and the same at 
comb. That was a freak stock and taught me not 
to do the same thing again. Latterly I have become 
a bit more indifferent as to the drop at butt, but cling 
to a fixed.drop of inches at comb. My favorite 
duck gun has a 2 ^ inch drop at butt by 13^ at comb; 
my favorite quail gun has a two inch drop at butt by 13^ 
comb. If the duck gun had a two inch drop and the 
quail gun two and a half I doubt if it would make much 
difference. 

In fitting or trying a gun for fit, do not attempt to 
secure a drop which enables you to sight fiat over the 
rib. The line of sight should be from an eighth to a 
quarter of an inch above the rib. This prevents the 
barrels from shading the object of aim. The line of 
sight should be about the same distance above the rib 
as would be taken when using rifle sights. When 
targetting the weapon at a fixed mark see that it throws 
the bulk of the charge above the point aimed at. The 
idea is to center the bird when he is still in plain view 
and not to fully cover him. It will be found, too, that 
the average man shoots a trifle lower at birds awing 
than he does at a stationary target. My guns throw 
the bulk of the charge above the point of aim when 
shooting at a still mark, and yet more of my misses fall 
under the bird than elsewhere. Barring trap shots, 
who, I think, go to the opposite extreme, most men are 
misfitted by having a stock that has too much drop. 

Stocks are measured in length from the front trigger 
of a two trigger gun to center of butt. Such measure¬ 
ments usually run from 14 to 1434 inches. Boys, 
women, and an occasional man may require a stock 
shorter than fourteen inches. Of course it is a fact 
that any man can handle a stock that is too short, as 
witness that every soldier has to adapt himself to the 


Ithaca straight grip, 43^ inches long, 43^ inches in circumference 









20 


WING SHOOTING 


abbreviated Springfield, yet a long stock is less punish¬ 
ing and it leads to more accurate gun pointing. Use 
as long a stock as possible and not be balked when in 
full clothing, or when assuming unnatural and cramped 
positions, frequently necessary in duck shooting. In 
the end a man will find his correct measurements, and 
these may be modified by shooting habits. The quick 
shot needs a straight stock, which may slow him up a 
little, and will automatically throw his charge on the 
mark when an impatient finger lets-off too promptly. 

A single trigger gun, trigger in the rear position, and 
measured from this trigger will usually have a stock 
about three-eighths of an inch shorter than the same 
fit of gun when stock is measured from the front 
trigger. It is to be noted that there is ordinarily an 
inch difference between the front and the back trigger 
but if all this difference is contained in the single 
trigger stock it will feel short. The trigger in the rear 
position means that the hand grips the stock farther 
back, and hence a longer stock may be used. How¬ 
ever, keep in mind that though customarily shooting 
a stock fourteen and a half inches long when measured 
from the front trigger you don’t want to order a single 
trigger arm with any such stock measurements, taken 
from trigger in the rear position. Most men prefer 
a single trigger in the rear position, a few in the middle 
position, and practically none in the front position. 

The grip is almost as important as the stock measure¬ 
ments, if the gun is to be used comfortably. Grips to 
fit a hand of ordinary dimensions should be not less than 
four and a half inches in circumference. Straight grips 
should be a trifle larger, the hand having less support 
to the rear. Gunmakers have a way of making twelve 
gauge grips of nominal dimensions but each gauge 
smaller has a lighter grip, forgetting that the same hand 


GUNS AND GUN FITTING 


21 



Stock measurement 

A, length, trigger to center of butt; B, 
length, trigger to toe; C, length, trigger to heel; 

D, drop at comb; E, drop at heel. Length from trigger to 
heel, as compared with distance from trigger to toe gives the pitc 


may hold either gun. The small grip looks racy, but 
it sacrifices utility. 

Pistol grips are measured in length from the center 
of rear trigger to the front curve of the bottom of grip, 
and from the same point on trigger to the top of cone 
rise. Average measurements will run about 3}^ inches 
for lower measurement by 4^ for the upper. 

Straight or pistol grips matter little, for the gunner 
can become accustomed to either in half a day. Straight 
grips are supposed to be faster in two trigger guns 
because the hand can shift more readily from right 
barrel to left. However, if the marksman follows the 
scheme that has^always appealed to me of shooting 
the left barrel first, this reasoning will not hold. I 
think it was Bogardus who claimed that the left barrel 
should be fired first because the gun then drive s 



















22 


WING SHOOTING 


back through the hand and the right trigger is then 
more easily and quickly reached than would be true 
of the left when first pull was reversed. Straight grips 
are measured from center of trigger to top of cone rise, 
which should be rather abrupt and high enough to 
well support the ball of the thumb. 

Cast-offs and Monte Carlo combs are more or less 
a humbug. A few people with broad shoulders and a 
broad face might be benefited by a slight cast-off, not 
more than three-eighths of an inch. The Monte Carlo 
comb is supposed to give the same line of elevation 
whether stock is cheeked at one point or another. As 
a matter of fact it doesn’t do that because the stock 
thickens toward the rear, and either the horizontal or 
the vertical line will be off unless a man’s cheek is 
placed uniformly. At best this comb is more liable to 
bruise the cheek than any normal stock. 

A cheek piece is of more use than any Monte Carlo 
comb, being very comfortable and not having any 
faults. What I like better, though, is to cut the cheek 
piece into the stock, Chan Powers fashion. The stock 
is built with a rather high and thick trap comb. This 
is then cut into and hollowed out, making a snug and 
precise resting place for the cheek. Compared with the 
slant of the comb the Powers’ cheek rest is deepened a 
bit as it extends backward, being thus the contrary of 
the Monte Carlo comb. It is made to blend into the 
wood and has no abrupt curves. I have long made it 
a practice to cut this kind of a cheek piece, but the 
plan originated with Mr. Powers. 


Chapter III 


GAUGES 

GUNS FOR WATERFOWL. GUNS FOR QUAIL. 
PATTERN PERFORMANCES, DIFFERENT 

I N THE ordinary course of human events it often 
so happens that a man begins to learn to shoot with 
the gun he ought to have as a graduating arm, and he 
finishes up with the arm he should have started with. 
The novice usually has a natural ambition to possess 
a fine shooting gun, one of the long range affairs, and 
he generally gets it. What he really needs is a gun 
that balances his skill, and unless he is a freak of 
nature he hasn’t any skill. This would make it appear 
logical that he doesn’t need any gun at all, but I didn’t 
quite mean that. What he needs is the widest scatter 
gun that was ever turned out, whatever that may be. 

Whatever a man’s skill in holding or his lack of skill, 
it is theoretically possible to furnish him with a gun 
he can hit with. Maybe he can’t gauge a flight, make 
a lead, and point his piece closer than two feet of the 
mark at twenty yards; all right, give him a gun with 
a four-foot spread, and if that is not enough, a five- 
foot spread or a six-foot. Give him a gun he can hit 
with, and he will get birds right from the beginning. 
Of course his range will be restricted, but it will be 
anyhow from not knowing lead and not knowing much 
of anything else. What he emphatically ought to have 
is a gun he can hit with, for it is an old and true say¬ 
ing, though trite, that hitting leads to hitting and 
missing to missing. 


23 


24 


WING SHOOTING 


If our beginner is fifteen years old or more, that is 
if he has a man’s strength, his first gun had better be 
a light twelve bore, one weighing about seven pounds. 
We are speaking now of quail guns particularly, but 
the gun will do for all work the first year or two. Have 
this piece a full cylinder, not modified or improved 
cylinder or improved anything. .A full cylinder ten 
bore would be better, but such a gun would have to 
be thrown away later on, and the twelve may be per¬ 
fectly satisfactory on quail, grouse, and woodcock for 
years to come. Have the gun fill up a thirty-inch circle 
at twenty yards, wider than that if it is possible for 
the gun maker to turn out an arm of more spread. 
The range should be confined to thirty yards and under; 
load with light charges of powder but the full amount 
of shot, say an ounce and a quarter of number nine 
shot for quail or woodcock, and seven and a half for 
ruffed grouse, with sevens for ducks. There is no need 
of a high velocity load where the game must be taken 
at short range, but the longer the column of shot the 
greater the spread in a cylinder gun, and spread is what 
we are looking for—spread and density with a bell¬ 
muzzled gun, if we could have what we need. 

After graduating with the full cylinder twelve bore, 
bagging perhaps seventy per cent on quail and fifty 
per cent on grouse, the time has come for a real grouse 
and quail gun. I have never seen the necessity for 
carrying a heavy arm or shooting a heavy load at such 
game as quail, woodcock, snipe, ruffed grouse or any 
other upland game unless it is chickens. A sixteen 
bore weighing six and a half pounds or a twenty of six 
to six and a quarter pounds will be heavy enough. 

In present day loads the shells for one of these gauges 
or the other may contain exactly the same load, one 
ounce of shot, driven at a velocity of around 850 to 


GUNS FOR WATERFOWL 


25 


900 feet second. Higher velocity than that is not 
required from an upland gun, the increased powder 
charge merely adds to kick and discomfort without 
being any more deadly up to average quail range. The 
sixteen or twenty bore may have an improved cylinder 



)uail and woodcock pattern for beginner. Thirty inch circle, 
fo yards, No. 9 shot. Taken from an actual pattern at the 

rlifttanpft 


right and a quarter choked left, or it may be bored 
fifty per cent right and sixty left. It is only when a 
twenty or sixteen gauge is to see all round use that it 
needs a closer than a sixty per cent barrel. 

None of us can probably do better than to base his 





26 


WING SHOOTING 


advice on his own personal experience. I he writer has 
three strictly quail guns, though they would be equally 
well adapted to woodcock, and grouse, and one of them 
to snipe—able, too, to do a pretty good job on ducks. 
The first is a sixteen gauge, both barrels bored im¬ 
proved cylinder, weight of arm seven pounds, single 
trigger. Either barrel covers a full twenty-four inch 
circle at twenty yards; anybody who can shoot at all 
can kill quail with this gun. Another deadly arm is a 
pump twenty, with cylinder barrel covering a twenty- 
six inch circle at twenty yards. It is a short range 
arm, but if handled fast and the birds get up right is 
altogether too deadly. A third gun is a twenty double 
barrel, weight six and one-half pounds, twenty-eight 
inch barrels, one bored fifty-five per cent choke and 
the other sixty-five per cent. This is a favorite arm, 
thoroughly satisfactory except in the brush, where 
nevertheless it is good enough. Quail ought to have 
some sort of sanctuary anyhow. The right barrel 
covers a twenty-two inch circle at twenty yards, the 
left sixteen or eighteen inch. 

The sort of gun last described is not for the tyro, 
and the boy who is started with it will more than likely 
give up shooting, discouraged. The expert shot, having 
due ambition and due regard for the game ought to 
use some such gun. However, I have yet to see the 
man who could put up a creditable performance on 
quail, cock or grouse with a full choked gun, no matter 
what the gauge. I have seen shooters who had an idea 
that they could wait out the bird and take him when 
he got far enough away, but all that kind of thing is 
essentially pottering, and a big percentage of the birds 
escaped unshot at. 

Most men use shot that are too large, speaking of 
quail and snipe or woodcock. This is probably more 
the fault of the cartridge companies than of the 



GUNS FOR WATERFOWL 


27 


shooters. Seven and a half seem to be favored by the 
cartridge makers, and about nine times in ten if the 
dealer has any cartridges at all they will be this size. 
For all small bore and open bored guns eights are better, 
and for some shooting nines are better than eights. 



Twenty-eight bore, % ounce number 8 shot, twenty-five yards, 
thirty inch circle, modified choke 


Some years ago we were able to get eight and one-half 
shot which were dandies on quail and snipe. Some of 
the lead companies still make a small eight, running 
about 450 to the ounce, and these I like better than 
standard shot of 400 to the ounce, particularly in guns 
smaller than twelve. 




28 


WING SHOOTING 


If we could have a gun for every purpose, woodcock 
would demand a bit opener shooting weapon than quail, 
and snipe a closer pattern. Woodcock are often shot 
within fifty feet, and they are a delicate bird, easily 
killed and readily mutilated. Grouse are often taken 
at close range, too, but again long shots are afforded 
and two barrels, one improved cylinder and the other 
three-quarters choke are about right. Snipe are often 
shot at short range, when they are lazy, on sunny days, 
but at other times the range may be anywhere up to 
fifty yards. The snipe gun should then be a denser 
patterning weapon than a quail gun, say one barrel 
quarter choke and the other full, if a small bore. 

Gunmakers differ about what they term their varia¬ 
tions in choke, and also concerning the patterns to be 
expected. None of them will build a full cylinder from 
choice, for such an arm is difficult to bore and get a 
round and even pattern. A full cylinder shoots a pat¬ 
tern of anywhere from thirty to forty per cent. An 
improved cylinder has just choke enough to be easy to 
bore, a choke of some five thousandths of an inch con¬ 
striction as a rule. This degree of choke is very 
popular and deservedly so. It shoots into a twenty- 
four or twenty-five inch circle, depending on the cart¬ 
ridge, and patterns about forty-five per cent. A quarter 
choke is a fifty to fifty-five per cent gun, a modified 
choke a sixty per cent, and a three-quarters choke, is 
a sixty-five per cent, shooting up to seventy with -a 
fitted cartridge and a full choke shoots from seventy to 
seventy-five per cent. Most factories, unless otherwise 
instructed bore their guns improved cylinder, modified, 
and full choke. Usually, in guns placed in stock, the 
boring will run in pairs—modified and full, improved 
cylinder and modified choke. 

Wild fowl guns are an altogether^different ^story, 
though many true duck guns are found in all-round 


GUNS FOR WATERFOWL 


29 


use. I would personally make the division between 
upland guns and duck guns pretty sharp, not only as 
to cartridge and bore but as to weight. First a word 
as to the all-round gun, the gun for the man who 
expects to own but one and means to get all the service 



Ten bore Ithaca, 1^2 ounces number 6 shot, thirty inch circle, 

40 yards 


possible out of it. This arm should perhaps be a 
twelve gauge, weighing from seven to seven and a 
quarter pounds, twenty-eight to thirty inch barrels, 
chambered for two and five-eighths inch cartridge, 
load not to exceed three and a quarter drams and an 
ounce and an eighth, with a general preference for 






30 


WING SHOOTING 


three drams of powder, and choked right improved 
cylinder and left full. Like any other jack of all 
trades this gun can do anything pretty well and nothing 
exceedingly well. It is too heavy for quail and too 
light for ducks; one barrel shoots too close for quail 



Duck load, 43 grains No. 93 powder, 134 ounces of No. 4 shot, 
Sweeley load, shot jacketed. In the 24 inch circle 146, in the 
30 inch 165, 95%. Only an expert shot could use this load. 


and the other is too open for the fowl. It is a make¬ 
shift arm, but I have seen some men make a darn good 
shift with it on all kinds of game and even at the trap. 

The quail gun we have been talking about, a sixteen, 
twenty or featherweight twelve, even a twenty-eight 









GUNS FOR WATERFOWL 


31 


bore is used sometimes, weights should not exceed six 
and three-fourths pounds, and one ounce of shot is 
enough. Duck guns should be either ten or twelve 
bore. The ten bore is not used very much, but it is 
a real duck gun for al' that. Not much prejudice 



Twenty bore, thirty inch circle, 40 yards, one ounce of small 

eights, full choked gun 


against the ten bore exists among gunners apparently, 
but they have not been able to get any better work 
out of the ten than they have from the twelve, hence 
could not see the horse sense in carrying extra weight 
of wood and iron. This state of things was neither 
the fault of the shooters nor the gunmakers. Gun 






32 


WING SHOOTING 


factories are willing and always have been willing to 
build any weight of ten bore desired, in any length of 
barrels. Since the heaviest load of shot obtainable 
was a twelve bore charge of an ounce and a quarter, 
the big gun had little or no advantage of a twelve 
and was properly disregarded. Shells have lately been 
developed for. the ten bore, however, containing an 
ounce and five-eighths of shot, patterning eighty per 
cent with this charge. Such a gun is not to be equalled 
by any twelve bore that has ever been made or ever 
will be made; so for certain ducking purposes, as in 
pass shooting or in sea shooting from a battery a good 
ten bore of a weight of ten pounds or more, with bar¬ 
rels of thirty-two to thirty-four inches has no peer in 
gauges smaller. Larger than standard loads could be 
made up using our bulk or dense powders, but for such 
loads as that given above progressive burning powders 
are required. 

I have lately been experimenting with these big loads 
in an eleven pound Ithaca. Patterns ranged from a 
hundred and sixty-six number four shot to two hundred, 
the average being about a hundred and eighty-four or 
eighty per cent. The loads contained forty-eight 
grains of number ninety-three and one and five-eighths 
or two hundred and thirty pellets, and with Du Pont 
De Luxe forty-six grains and the same shot load. 
Pressures with the number ninety-three ran under 
four tons and velocities averaged 1,018 feet second. 
This velocity is materially higher than has been ob¬ 
tained with standard loads of an ounce and an eighth, 
and is a full sixty feet higher than is afforded by three 
and a half drams and an ounce and a quarter in twelve 
bores. With such a load one of the big guns ought to 
kill single ducks up to seventy-five yards. It is the 
arm for the man who is ambitious to test his skill and 
knowledge against the flight speed of fowl at long range. 


GUNS FOR WATERFOWL 


33 


A gun of wider usefulness than the ten is a twelve 
bore, chambered for three inch cases, weight about 
eight and a half pounds, using at present the Super X 
shell with a load of i% ounces of shot. These guns are 
an altogether different weapon from the standard 



Goose load, special heavy Fox gun, and No. 2 shot, pellets in load 
111, in the 30 inch circle 105; forty yards, De Luxe powder, 

shot mold 


twelve, pattern up to eighty-five percent and are deadly 
on fowl at sixty yards or better. The twelve of this 
description is no longer a forty yard gun or a fifty yard, 
but will kill very often up to seventy. Specially bored 
for three inch cases it is not well adapted to shorter 
shells, which confines the arm pretty much to wild 






34 


WING SHOOTING 


fowl, geese and ducks. For duck shooting most men 
would prefer it to a ten bore since it handles faster, 
and the marksman is less disturbed in his time and 
swing. The big load it carries has no dangerous 
pressure, the average of ten shots as given by the 
Western Cartridge Company having a pressure of 
4.55 tons. The velocity runs between 1005 and 1020 
feet second. 

An almost equally effective duck gun is one cham¬ 
bered for a 2% inch case, shooting regular Super X 
shells of this length and other heavy loads. Such 
an arm should weigh about eight pounds. This 
weapon has an effective range little shorter than the 
three inch chambered duck gun, patterning an equally 
high percentage, but throwing only an ounce and a 
quarter of shot. For shooting over decoys, on inland 
waters, we would prefer this gun to either the ten bore 
or the heavier twelve. The arm should be lighter, 
the recoil is less, and the range up to all requirements 
when decoys, are used.. 

It is a matter of common knowledge that the standard 
twelve with standard ammunition does very well on 
ducks. Up to fifty yards it is good enough to account 
for its bird about as well as the more powerful arms. 
Arms for standard bulk and dense powder cartridges 
usually weigh between seven and eight pounds. Super 
X shells can be shot in them to advantage if a heavy 
load is required, and they also handle other ounce and a 
quarter loads, but many are better fitted and shoot 
better with an ounce and an eighth of shot. 

In closing this chapter we will mention the fowling 
pieces in most common use—those that kill more ducks 
than all the double guns combined—pump-action re¬ 
peating shotguns and automatics. Everybody knows 
all about a Winchester pump or a Remington auto¬ 
matic. They shoot as well as any guns handling like 


GUNS FOR WATERFOWL 


35 


cartridges, repeat rapidly enough so that the gun can 
be emptied on a flock that comes in, and they cer¬ 
tainly kill ducks. There is something fascinating 
about killing two ducks every time the watch ticks, 
and keeping it up until six birds are down. The writer 



more than once. 

Repeating shotguns are an American invention and 
seem to suit the American tendency to get what we 
start after. In trained hands the pump is about as 








36 


WING SHOOTING 


effective as the automatic. My own opinion is that 
these magazine arms do not lead to as accurate holding 
as does the double barrel. The tendency is to depend 
on rapidity of fire rather than good holding, whereupon 
if one shot misses maybe the next one or the third will 
not. Personally, I should like to see automatics and 
pump guns confined to three shells, two in the maga¬ 
zine. Sixteen and twenty bores are used for duck 
shooting but are not equal to a good twelve. 


Super X, No. 2 shot, Lewis gun, distance 70 yards, pattern in 

30 inch 37, 34 percent 










Chapter IV 


STYLES, METHOD OF AIMING, MANNER OF 

SWING 

A NYBODY who knows anything about wing¬ 
shooting at all, who has tried it or who has been 
told anything about it knows that a flying bird cannot 
be struck by shooting directly at him unless he is 
going straight away. Even the rifleman, shooting a 
missile with a velocity of three thousand feet at a slow 
moving deer, soon learns that his bullet will not land 
precisely where he has held, that he must make a 
certain amount of allowance for speed of the mark and 
time of bullet over the course. 

Knowing that he must lead, the most natural thing 
for the gunner to do, and what he usually does do is 
to point his piece the distance ahead that he thinks 
correct and fire. Maybe he has had some preliminary 
practice at tin cans thrown up; in that case he will 
probably throw his gun plenty far enough ahead on the 
line he can see the bird will take, and then wait until 
the mark approaches near enough to the gun, upon 
which he pulls the trigger. The writer began wing¬ 
shooting in just that way, and he didn’t in the least 
know that it wasn’t the right way. It worked too, on 
birds that were not too fast, on rabbits, crows, meadow 
larks, quail that were going away, chickens and other 
things. If any man tells you that he tossed his gun 
up ahead of the duck and fired, such was his method 
of taking lead. 


37 


38 


WING SHOOTING 


By and by the shooter discovers, particularly in duck 
shooting, that if he first sights the fowl, that is covers it, 
and then moves his gun just so far ahead, with a quick 
movement, practically a jerk, that he will be more 
accurate about his allowance and more successful in 
his shooting. His idea is to jerk his gun ahead and 
shoot as the piece stops at the distance calculated upon. 
Our marksman either doesn’t know anything about the 
carry through, or he has never practiced it successfully. 
Sighting the mark and then jerking the gun ahead can 
be used successfully, but a jerked gun is not a well 
governed gun, for the lead depends on the strength 
and quickness of the jerk, and upon the ability of the 
marksman to check his piece at just the right point. 
He may jerk his weapon too hard and too fast or not 
hard enough and not fast enough. Besides he is 
timing his trigger to that jerk and the two may not 
work together. Just at the instant the quick move¬ 
ment starts the trigger pull may start also, or it may 
be delayed and the gun will have to be fired after the 
forward motion has ceased. In either instance he loses 
some of the lead he has calculated for. I remember 
the time when I used to sight my duck and then move 
the gun down and up again with a sort of circular sweep, 
timing the trigger to yield as the sight again cut the 
line of flight. That was in the day when most of my 
shooting was snap work, and I could better time my 
trigger and time my lead to the upward movement of 
the barrels than to a swing. 

Many a duck shooter is using some such system now, 
or maybe a more direct snap, simply getting under the 
flight line and then raising his weapon at such an angle 
that it will take the correct lead as the flight line is cut. 

This style of shooting works very well when ducks 
have decoyed, in jumping them, in all instances where 



Rough Snap.—An attempt to show the gun movements before 
the piece comes to rest on the bird 











40 


WING SHOOTING 


fowl are going away or have not acquired top speed. 
It works on quail, snipe, woodcock, grouse and nearly 
all “ground” game, that is on birds which are flushed 
from the ground or even from the water, usually taking 
a course more or less away from the gun. We would 
call this kind of aimimg either snap shooting or a half 
snap. 

What might be termed the stationary lead would 
work very well if the gun could be discharged elec¬ 
trically, instantaneously. But. how much better we 
could all shoot, and how much less interesting it would 
be if the shot got there instantaneously too. This 
book would not be necessary then, and we would all 
be born wingshots, and we wouldn’t have anything to 
shoot at. The trouble with a snapped lead is trigger 
pulling time, plus lock time, plus time of shot up the 
barrel. It has been estimated or measured, if claims 
are true, that from the impact of striker on primer to the 
emergence of shot from the muzzle requires about one 
two hundred and fiftieth of a second, and it is esti¬ 
mated that the trigger time of individuals varies from 
one twenty-fifth to one hundredth of a second. I have 
learned that my own trigger time is about one foot and a 
half in the flight of a quail. If the quail is given a 
speed of sixty feet a second, my trigger time is one 
fortieth of a second. Locktime might be one five 
hundredth of a second. 

Working out the above figures into feet of a duck’s 
flight at ninety feet a second, and we have a loss equal 
to two feet nine and a half inches as the loss in lead due 
to shooting with a still gun. This would insure a 
missed bird even though theoretically the allowance 
was correct. In order to overcome such handicap 
shooters prefer to keep the gun moving along with the 
bird until trigger is pulled and even afterward. This 



Half Snap.—A, where the gun points when brought up; A to B, 
line of gun movement in aiming; C to B, lead; D to B, line of fire; 

B, point of aim 




42 


WING SHOOTING 


means that they swing with the mark, and hence we 
have shooting with a swing. In order to swing with 
the fowl the gun is usually brought up on him from 
behind. This insures that the line of swing travels 
faster than the speed of the mark for it has to overtake 
the mark and pass it to a given lead, all in a very brief 
space of flight. The line of swing may therefore travel 
twice as fast as the bird flies, and we have a gain from 
swing. If the gun traveled right along in front of the 
duck we would have neither gain nor loss from swing, 
but if it traveled twice as fast as the bird flew we would 
have a gain from what is known as the rapid swing of 
about three feet, which needs to be deducted from 
theoretical lead, that is from a lead based on the speed 
of missile as compared with the speed of target. Some 
men swing much faster than others, and hence we have 
the fact that very few marksmen agree as to just what 
allowance must be given, the variation being in direct 
proportion to the speed of swing. 

Figures have been worked out whereby no conscious 
lead need be given a passing fowl within forty yards, 
the entire lead being unconscious, secured entirely 
during the interval of pressing the trigger to the emer¬ 
gence of shot from the muzzle. It is to be borne in 
mind that a man does many things of which he is not 
conscious. For example when he has swung just past 
the duck, and right then his brain commands “pull 
trigger,” to his own mind he has pulled trigger right 
there and then, and the subsequent gain of gun on bird 
he never knows anything about. Ask such a man 
where he held on a passing bird at forty yards and he 
will tell you right in front of its head. Tell him of the 
speed of his shot and the speed of the mark, and that 
he must have been so many feet or yards ahead in 
order for shot and bird to meet, and he will laugh at 



A swinging aim. Length of bird, two feet, lead 4 feet. A, where 
the bird is when gun starts to shoulder; B, where the bird is when 
gun comes up; A to C, the distance the gun was behind the bird 
when swing started; entire length of swing 12 feet; swing of 

gun at muzzle about an inch 



44 


WING SHOOTING 


you. He knows where he held and that the duck was 
killed and that was all of it. 

Speed of swing is a good servant but a poor master. 
The swing may become so rapid that it cannot be 
governed or controlled, too rapid to permit us to base 
the trigger pull on it. In duck shooting by all means 
acquire swing, but make it uniform rather than too 
fast; make it so reliable that lead can be based upon! t 
rather than so rapid that no lead is required. If any 
man thinks that he can swing a gun very fast and yet 
strike any given point with the charge, let him try 
that out on a stationary mark. If his gun is moving 
too smartly he will find his shots strung out widely 
along the line of swing, some shots going too soon and 
some too late. It would be exactly the same thing 
in case of a duck flying. Besides, it is only a matter 
of distance when conscious lead will have to be taken 
anyhow. By swinging sharply, judging from my own 
experience, a passing duck may be killed by holding 
just in front of him—if he is' under thirty yards. At 
forty yards it will be found wise to lead two or three 
feet, and at sixty yards double that. I am willing to 
bet that the man who swung fast enough not to require 
any lead at sixty yards, couldn’t hit the duck if he were 
motionless in the air. 

Snap shooting pure and simple means to throw the 
gun to the shoulder, pointed directly at the spot to be 
hit, and then pulling trigger without moving the gun 
up or down or sidewise. It is a rather rough sort of an 
aim, as any man who tries it on a stationary mark with 
a rifle will discover. The movements are too many 
and too complicated, and accuracy depends on every 
one of them being exact. The feet must be placed, 
the body balanced, the gun come up true to its place 
on the shoulder, the check fit—all these things being 


METHOD OF AIMING 


45 


done instantly without any chance to correct by a 
second, closing movement. The fixed intention of the 
shooter is to pull trigger the instant the gun comes to 
level, and whether it is then off or on, he pulls trigger. 
Besides, the bird may be doing something unforeseen dur¬ 
ing the interval. When all is said, this kind of aiming is 
adapted only to guns bored very open, and to birds of 
very regular flight, going away from the gunner. 

A better way to snap is to get the gun up, directed 
very close to the mark but sufficiently under it to leave 
the target in plain view, pause long enough to notice 
the space between where the piece is pointed and the 
mark, and then close the gap on the shortest line. This 
is a simple way of aiming and a very killing style on 
all upland game. The closing movement can be made 
very rapid, too fast for the bird to do much dodging, 
and the instant this final aim starts to close in the 
marksman knows where it will end, and can time his 
trigger very accurately. With this kind of aim, 
usually termed a half-snap, any kind of pattern may 
be used effectively, even a full choke. It is a little 
slower than a full snap but not very much, not more 
than five or ten feet in the flight of a quail. This is 
the style of aiming generally used on quail, snipe, and 
on live pigeons shot from the trap—on nearly every¬ 
thing except passing waterfowl. Preferably guns for 
snap shooting should throw their charge a trifle high, 
the final movement usually rising and often betrayed 
by a premature let-off, throwing charge under. 

The swing is the only style of aiming adapted to 
duck shooting when the fowl are passing. Some men 
swing along evenly in front of the mark, the gun 
traveling no faster than the bird. This is a very 
consistent manner of aiming, but loses all gain from 
swing that is accomplished with a more rapid gun 


46 


WING SHOOTING 


movement. Men who use it will be found to take more 
lead, but will still kill regularly. 

The rapid swing can be developed only by a long 
course of practice. It might be said that the more a 
man shoots ducks the faster he will swing his piece and 
the less lead he will take. Ultimately he may not 
know how much lead he is taking, but back of that is 
a world of experience during which he aimed with the 
utmost care, knowing how much allowance he intended 
to make, how much he did make, and why he hit and 
why he missed. 

The usual instructions for learning to shoot with a 
swing, is to direct the beginner to throw up his gun 
behind the mark, and then swing after it until he passes 
the bird and reaches the desired lead. The advice is 
all right, but it generally leads the marksman into 
throwing his piece up too far behind. He sees where 
the fowl is, and means to throw up his weapon pointed 
a few feet behind that particular point in the air. A 
man’s mental and nerve and muscular machinery is 
rarely fully understood. When his brain commands 
“put the gun up pointed right there,’’ his nerves and 
his arms obey and the gun comes up according to 
orders, in a jiffy, perhaps in a quarter of a second of 
time. Meantime the bird isn’t there any more; in a 
quarter of a second a fast duck would fly twenty feet, 
and the gun that was intended to be pointed ten feet 
behind is now thirty feet back. That scares the 
marksman, for the fowl is getting past the point it was 
intended to kill him. The piece would now be swung 
after the mark at a great rate, too fast for accurate 
holding, or if the swing is carefully regulated the shot 
is delivered late. Even if it is then successful the 
second barrel probably will not be. Endeavor to throw 
up the gun pointed directly at the mark, and during 


METHOD OF AIMING 


47 


the fraction of a second neces¬ 
sary to steady the weapon the 
fowl will get plenty far enough 
ahead. In order to point direct¬ 
ly at the fowl or to find the arm 
pointing there after it is up, it 
will be necessary to start the 
piece up in front, not behind. 

Not too much ahead, of course, 
for we might then be tempted to 
pull trigger at once, but use 
judgment. If it takes a quarter 
of a second to get the gun up, 
it will soon be learned how far 
the bird will fly, and where to 
point the piece in order to make 
the closing swing very short and 
very accurate. It is a well 
known principle that a short 
straight line is easier drawn than 
a long straight line, and on the 
same principle a short swing is 
more apt to be accurate than a 
long swing. 

Long swings are essentially 
gun pottering; long aims are 

pottering anyhow. The same An attempt to show the 
principle applies to half snap -size of the duck, drawn 

work. Don’t throw the gun too ! , n prop ° rti ™ ij? h l s ^ 
tar under, if the final aim is to 'at muzzle less than inch, 
be a snap, and never behind when 

that can be avoided. I once saw a man who had read 
or who had been told that the way to shoot a rifle was 
to direct it well under the mark, and then raise the 
piece steadily until the bull was covered, when he 







48 


WING SHOOTING 


pulled. In order to be sure that he was doing the thing 
right he pointed his piece about four feet low at fifty 
yards and then raised it to the bull—I never saw him 
hit anything much even by accident. Had his aim 
been obliged to travel only about four inches the 
scheme would have worked better. 

The shorter the swing or the shorter the closing 
movement of a snap the more accurate the lead, when 
lead is required or the more accurate the snap in that 
kind of aim. In the old days when I did more or less 
trap shooting I found that I could do much better at 
known angles. The gun would then be pointed a little 
distance from the trap, close to what I knew would be 
the line of flight; as the bird shot past I would then 
be in much better position to take him than I would 
have been with the gun pointing at the trap house, and 
therefore obliged to follow up. Live bird or game 
shooting is known angle work, if the “dog gone” bird 
would keep his course. Even if he is the kind of a chap 
which dodges and swerves with lightning quickness, 
the gun that is pointed close to him is in much better 
position than the one which has to make a long swing 
after him. 

All swinging movements after the gun is up, no less 
the closing or final aim in a snap shot, are body move¬ 
ments. The feet are a fixed pivot and on them the 
body is swung, sidewise, up or down. Such a body 
movement is very even, smooth, and regular. In com¬ 
parison arm movements are jerky and inaccurate. 
That is one reason why a rough snap is not a killing 
style of aiming since the gun is then governed entirely 
by the arms 


Chapter V 


SHOOTING WITH THE MIND. SELF CONFI¬ 
DENCE. SHOOTING HABITS 

A MAN really shoots with his brains, memory 
being a large factor. Deprive us of the remem¬ 
brance of what we had done and how we did it, and 
we could accomplish little or nothing. Take one away 
from some game at which he was expert, keep him off 
it for a number of years, some bird perhaps on which 
he was a good shot, and when he returns to that bird 
he will find himself obliged to learn over again. His 
memory of just how he accomplished the thing has 
dulled. 

In the same way the individual with an analytical 
turn of mind will become the best and most consistent 
shot. He is constantly looking for reasons, and when 
he has reasoned the thing out he knows and doesn’t 
forget. Men who are clever mechanics very often 
become equally clever shots, and the good shot nearly 
always has mechanical ability. Our mechanic has the 
trained brain which insists upon an act being performed 
in a set way, and this leads to results. 

Certain things must be ground into the memory until 
they cannot be forgotten. One of these things is the 
shooting of the gun. With a certain load in a certain 
gun, some species of game bird can be killed regularly 
up to a given range and no farther. Learn this and 
don’t strain the gun, or at least don’t lose confidence 
in your aim because this gun fails to kill beyond its 

49 


50 


WING SHOOTING 


range. Some guns, with stocks that are not quite 
right, perhaps, vary their center of impact with the 
position the shooter assumes, or with the swing he 
gives. Possibly it will be learned that when a swing 
is taken to the left less lead is required than when 
swinging to the right, possibly the elevation should be 
less on a right swing and more on a left swing. One 
gun that I had used to shoot to the right and high every 
time I wheeled to take a bird that was going over my 
head. It took time and experience to learn that I had 
to hold a foot low and six inches to the right on every 
quail which had passed over my head and was going 
away. Now and then gun or man will shoot true on 
the drivers but will fall under on a swing, or it may be 
just the reverse. 

In learning where to hold and why it may be neces¬ 
sary to make notes, possibly with diagrams. If these 
are made in the shooting note book, mark out the posi¬ 
tion of the gun, where the bird arose, the course he 
took (show this with a dotted line, at the same time 
show where the gun came up and where it was carried 
to, the lead, and the result. Such diagrams will be 
found worthy of study, at odd times when not shoot¬ 
ing. If a like hold on a like flight shows a miss one 
time and a kill another, occurring often enough and 
near enough to indicate that the gun was not in fault, 
the problem is worthy careful study. The man who 
can’t account for his misses will never learn to hit well. 
The great game of the wingshot is to learn to account 
for his misses, and if he can learn the reasons for one 
miss today, which he couldn’t account for yesterday, 
that is making fine progress. The miss might be due 
to a loss of time, or to an attempt to quicken time, or 
to an attempt to change time, or it might be due to 
faulty mechanics, or it might be due to carelessness, 


SHOOTING WITH THE MIND 


51 


or it might be due to overcaution. In any event the 
reasons for the miss, according to the best judgment, 
should be recorded along with the diagram. The time 
will come when many of those misses can be prevented, 
by knowing how and why they occurred. 

No man ever became an expert shot without a world 
of self-confidence. Self-confidence without a wealth of 
sustained success back of it is another story. Soldiers 
will all tell you of the “bird” who declared that he 
would be the first over the top, who fully believed him¬ 
self that nothing could scare him, yet he was the first 
man to run. That kind of self-confidence never got 
any one anywhere yet. But the kind that is based on 
experience, a confident belief in being able to do a thing 
because it has been done time and again is what our 
shooter needs. 

Self-confidence of the right sort can’t lead us wrong 
unless we drift into carelessness. I knew a lad at 
school who was so confident he could clear the bar at 
six feet that he ran at it smilingly, and knocked it down. 
He never had another chance, and the coach added 
some adjectives to the term we have used. 

Self-confidence should obviate worry and overcau¬ 
tiousness, both great enemies of a good performance. 
The shooting mind is a single track mind, and should 
not be switched off the main track by worry concern¬ 
ing present, future or past performances. What 
usually causes a shooter to displace confidence by 
worry is an audience, and the audience may be only 
one person. The only way to overcome that kind of 
worry and nervousness is to shoot in company until 
you don’t care a tinker’s damn any more who is watch¬ 
ing. Most of us learn faster and put up a better per¬ 
formance when alone, but man is such a gregarious 
animal that he is not willing to tolerate that sort of 


52 


WING SHOOTING 


thing very much. A shooting mate destroys our time, 
makes us anxious, makes us nervous, brings out sel¬ 
fishness, brings out generosity, and no one except a 
boy or a woman ever takes any pride in our skill, yet 
the right fellow is no less indispensable than the dog, 
the gun, and the game in the old, red briar patch. 

A man without shooting habits could never put up 
a consistent performance—in fact, however, such a man 
could not be found in a veteran shot. Shooting habits 
are certain to be developed, but they may be bad 
habits as well as good. Good habits lead to hitting 
and bad habits to missing, as a matter of course. 
Habits lead to ease and uniformity and, if they are 
correct, to accuracy. Habits are a method that nature 
has of relieving the brain of unnecessary work. Every 
trained mechanic is a mechanic from habit, and goes 
along more or less automatically. When the brain 
consciously interferes with habit the shooter is put 
under a strain and bad work results. 

It is important when developing habits and methods 
not to further false movements and fool stunts. I knew 
one man who always spit on his left hand when he went 
in to flush, no spit no hit; another had to carry his 
barrels up across the body, pointed up at an elevation 
of forty-five degrees—couldn’t get into action properly 
otherwise; another had to stand in trap position, gun 
butt to shoulder, and he had to have some one else 
or the dog do the flushing; one man will shove his left 
hand clear out beyond the fore-end, and another will 
bring it back close to the guard; I knew one man who 
tried to walk in to flush by keeping the left foot in 
front of the right, going hitching along, stepping up 
with the left foot and bring the right up behind— 
that was the most laughable stunt of the lot. 

A few years ago it became a fad to teach factory 


SHOOTING WITH THE MIND 


53 


employes efficiency, the elimination of all false and 
unnecessary movements. The idea was a good one, 
but it didn t work out because the average man was 
unwilling or unable to concentrate sufficiently to ac¬ 
quire the new and improved habits. He had habits 
and he intended to keep them or quit the job. The 
shotgun shooter needs to do that very thing though; 
he needs to acquire the habit of doing a thing in the 
shortest and easiest way, with the least possible loss 
of time, with the least possible number of motions. 
The only thing that keeps a man of correct shooting 
habits from hitting all the birds is that the game has 
not been grounded in equally good habits. The habits 
of game, method of flying, habit of swerving, and other 
things we will take up later. 

We believe that it will be found wise to get the 
habit of snapping all upland game and of swinging on 
all waterfowl. Swinging on upland game entails a loss 
of time that often can ill be spared, while snapping 
passing ducks never has worked. The writer admits 
that he never has been able to put this theory into 
practice, but then he is an old timer and old men 
develop and stick to habits much more determinedly 
than the youthful. At one time I snapped quail, 
woodcock, grouse, and snipe, being very good at it. 
Circumstances were such that for the next ten years 
most of my shooting was at ducks, and I got the fixed 
habit of swinging. On the quail the swinging habit 
now persisted. If a quail got up and quartered to the 
left, the chances were ten to one that I threw the gun 
in behind him, passed and fired, when I had as well 
thrown the gun in front of him in the first place, since 
a quartering quail needs very little allowance. Never¬ 
theless, the crack shot ought to be able to employ the 
swing or the snap at will. Very often the snap shot 



Missed 

















































SHOOTING WITH THE MIND 


55 


will get in a deadly charge while the man with the 
swing is throwing his into the brush after the bird is 
under cover. 

Habits can be acquired only by a repetition of a 
movement, a series of movements or something else 
that is done regularly in the same way. Shooting 
habits would be easily acquired, if we could shoot 
enough. If we could have an opportunity of shooting 
a hundred ducks a day for ninety days, I’ll wager that 
we came out with fixed shooting habits, habits of aim¬ 
ing, a fixed time, habits of leading, and habits of 
hitting. That is one reason why our trap shots are 
shooting ninety-five per cent. They have a chance to 
develop habits and they do it to a nicety. Few of us 
ever have like opportunities on game. The old-time 
market gunners had, and few duck shots of today can 
compare with them. Gun habits and ease of handling 
the arm can be acquired in a way by simply repeating 
movements—raise the gun, aim, swing, pull trigger, 
and go over it all again and again. It is said of the 
Englishman that when he sees a bird flying he raises 
his cane, sights the flying mark, swings to his lead and 
says bang! That is not such a fool thing as might be 
thought, for our Briton is simply trying to keep up his 
shooting habits. 

Everybody knows that the good shot is the one who 
can concentrate on his job; so is a good workman of 
any kind. It ought to be a simple thing to concen¬ 
trate on an aim which lasts less than a second, but it 
doesn’t seem to be. From the time a bird breaks 
cover until it is killed or missed, or from the time the 
gun is raised on a passing fowl until it is fired, our 
marksman seems to have time for a number of things 
besides aiming and pressing trigger. Anxiety may 
possess him, fear of missing; he may keep thinking of 


56 


WING SHOOTING 


the brush and wondering if he can cover the mark 
before it escapes; he may be trying to do the thing with 
style and grace in place of confining himself to simply 
hitting. I knew one trap shot who had a reputation 
for shooting quickly, and the only thing he seemed to 
think of was how quickly he could fire. All that was 
necessary to make him miss was to suggest that some¬ 
body else in the squad was getting them in remarkably 
fast time. 

About half the birds are missed by the shooter 
“poking” them, trying to see that his sight was in the 
right place, maybe trying to line up two sights, maybe 
trying to follow out some fool system that he had 
marked out as correct. The thing to do when a bird 
rises is to get the eyes on him and the mind on him. 
Note the nature of the ground beforehand, the position 
of companions, the trees or cover that may intervene, 
the probable course of flight, and after the birds break 
cover select the one you mean to shoot and don't see 
the others. If you can see two birds at one time you 
can’t hit either one. If you can see a tree while the 
bird is flying toward it, you may hit the tree but not 
the bird; if you can see the gun while it is being aimed, 
you may shoot all right but you won’t hit. 

Even lead is not thought of when a shooter is actually 
aiming at a winging bird. Let the lead be given by 
instinct, which is only another name for subconscious 
government. A man needs to feel that he is holding 
right, that he has held right, that he led correctly, that 
he should have hit. When the writer feels that he has 
held true, or feels that he has led the proper distance, 
and he doesn’t kill, he always cusses the gun, knowing 
that there was either a hole in the pattern or else the 
gun doesn’t fit him. If a marksman cannot take his 
lead or his elevation without looking at gun’s sights 


SHOOTING WITH THE MIND 


57 


he can’t shoot anyhow. Get acquainted with the fit 
of the piece, get acquainted with the trigger pull, get 
acquainted with the weight of the arm and its natural 
speed of swing or the shooter’s speed when using it, 
but when the bird is in sight, think of nothing but that 
bird, see nothing else, and know nothing else. 

I once asked a good market shooter how he managed 
to kill ducks with such regularity. He said, “I shoot at 
every duck with all my might.” I took to watching 
him, and that was exactly what he seemed to be doing. 
When in the act of aiming his eyes bulged out, and his 
expression would have fitted a prize fighter when in the 
act of delivering a knockout blow. Wouldn’t that kind 
of thing be hard work? It sure would. Fine shooting 
is neither for the aged, the infirm, nor the lazy. Is it 
worth while to concentrate to such an extent, to put 
so much vim into the work—when merely shooting for 
pleasure? I don’t know; I think not. I believe there 
is more fun in just plugging along and taking things 
as they come. The man I remember as seemingly 
getting more fun out of his sport than any other missed 
about half the time and apparently got as much en¬ 
joyment out of his misses as he did from his hits, I can 
commend that state of mind and it doesn’t usually 
lead to missing either. Jealousy, over-anxiety, ner¬ 
vousness, eagerness, lack of mechanical training, and 
lack of knowledge account for most misses. 

The professional and other trap shots possess a 
different sort of concentration, a prolonged and sus¬ 
tained concentration. They are obliged to keep their 
minds on the shooting for hours at a time. If any one 
doubts this let him attempt to start a conversation 
with a good trap shot while he is shooting. I once 
asked one of them what he was thinking about while 
making a long run on clay birds. His reply was that 


58 


WING SHOOTING 


he was not thinking; he was just shooting. I .con¬ 
cluded that the professional trap shot who could talk 
and shoot at the same time never became a professional 
shot. Shooting as a sport is one thing and shooting as a 
profession is another, the very hardest work that a 
man ever did. Many of our great shots finally quit 
by reason of a nervous break-down, and I am not 
wondering at that either. The writer once made up 
his mind to kill twenty-five doves straight as they came 
into a water-hole, and after several attempts did it. 
It spoiled the whole thing, took all the fun out, and he 
never afterward tried that again. Neither do I like to 
shoot with a man who feels that he has to kill with 
every charge—no fun in him either. 

One thing concentration very properly does for a 
man which nothing else would. It prevents him from 
paying any attention to recoil. The recoil of a light 
twelve bore gun, fully charged is considerable—put the 
butt against a man’s stomach and pull trigger and he’ll 
think he is killed, but the same man can shoot at ducks 
all day and never feel the gun go off. It is said that 
when an Englishman shoots his big 600 bore elephant 
rifle it always kicks him down, but he can never after¬ 
ward remember how he got down nor how he got up 
again. Few men can shoot at geese and remember 
afterward whether the gun kicked or not. I have 
cussed it for not kicking before now, wishing to be sure 
that the old fowlingpiece was able to do something at 
one end or the other. I once knew a fellow who was 
standing outside of his pit when geese came along. 
I he first barrel kicked him backward and he fell into 
the pit in a sitting position. Firing his second barrel 
he killed a goose and when it was all over declared 
that he had fired both barrels while sitting in his blind 
as usual. 


Chapter VI 


SPEED OF BIRDS AWING. SPEED OF SHOT 
CHARGE. THEORETICAL LEAD. 

r I y HE speed of a game bird in flight is of course of 
the greatest importance to the wingshot. Every 
time he changes from one game bird to another, he 
will have to contend with a different speed of flight and 
a different lead. Speed of flight, to be sure, has to be 
learned in terms of allowance, and this can be acquired 
only by much experience. The best we can do is to 
treat the subject of this chapter in general terms, 
leaving much for the reader to acquire through actual 
shooting. 

Occasionally ducks have been timed over a given 
course, and their time has been variously given as 
from forty to better than sixty miles an hour. Some 
species are considered much faster than others, and 
no doubt are, but I have observed that when two or 
three kinds happen to be flying together that all readily 
keep the same pace. A mallard is not supposed to be 
a very fast bird as ducks go, yet I have seen a lone 
mallard keep right along with a flock of greenwing teal, 
and he didn’t seem to have any trouble about keeping 
up. This led me to studying speed, and its exceeding 
variability. We will take that up presently. 

In a general way it might be said that birds with 
short wings have a very even speed while long-winged 
fowl have the greatest change of pace. I believe that 

59 


6o 


WING SHOOTING 


a quail has the most even flight of any bird the sports¬ 
man has to deal with. Take full grown and strong 
quail, and the only variation that can be noted in 
flight speed is that occasioned by the wind and by 
cover, brush or other obstruction. The quail has a lot 
of engine power, but his propellers do not catch much 
air, so have to make so many hundred revolutions a 
second to make the machine go, and I might add, he 
always does that very thing. The wings of a quail are 
drawn in pictures, but in actual flight they simply 
make a bright sheen of light on either side of his body. 
A quail is supposed to be able to make ninety feet a 
second, mile a minute, but I think sixty feet would be 
more nearly correct. Moreover, I think his highest 
rate of speed is gained before he has traveled thirty 
yards, and that after covering from seventy-five to a 
hundred yards his pace will be lessening. I have run 
along-side of a flying bevy of quail in an automobile 
sometimes, machine going forty-five miles an hour. 
For fifty yards or so they would keep even pace with 
the car, perhaps gaining a little, after which they would 
gradually drop behind. A passing quail doesn’t require 
as much lead as a duck by any means. 

A dove has less speed than a quail, as he gets off the 
ground, but our dove is a great sprinter when he takes 
a notion. I have been driving along with a dove, going 
around fifty miles, with the dove out a hundred feet to 
one side of the road; all at once the bird took a notion 
to cross the road in front of the car, and that is just 
what he did, whipped up and went right around us, 
apparently not over exerting himself either. Just how 
fast a dove can fly when he sees fit or is frightened, 
nobody knows, but his ordinary gait when he sees no 
particular reason to hurry is about fifty feet a second. 

In the last couple of years I have been counting time 


SPEED OF BIRDS AWING 


6l 


on various game birds—sometimes holding a stop 
watch on them. The surprise I got was in their tre¬ 
mendous variation in flight speed. Occasionally an 
old mallard will go loitering along, dipping down here 
and rising there, turning his head from side to side, and 
he won’t be making more than from thirty to forty feet 
a second. Again he will flash by at a good ninety, and 
maybe faster with the wind behind him. Right there 
lies the secret of a lot of missing. 

Take our greenhead when he is unsuspicious of 
danger, and he is an easy bird to hit; scare him with the 
first barrel and he is an altogether different mark. 
The answer to this problem is, don’t jump up to shoot 
ducks, don’t let them see you before you shoot. How¬ 
ever, I believe that the average speed of a mallard, 
pintail, spoonbill, gadwall, and widgeon is not over 
sixty feet a second. Teal are faster when they are in 
flock formation and traveling. The little chaps always 
seem to be in a hurry, and their average speed should 
be around seventy feet, with a possibility of reaching 
a hundred when a wind is back of them. The canvas- 
back appears to be the uniformly fastest duck of the 
lot. He is slow about getting away from decoys, slow 
about rising, but when under full steam, ninety feet a 
second is sure easy for him. Bluebills and redheads fly 
rapidly, but hardly as fast as a canvasback. Maximum 
lead should be given the canvasback, and from him on 
down to a mudhen which anybody can hit. 

Can we tell anything about whether a fowl is going 
at top speed or not by looking at him? Not very 
much. A duck has eyes a good deal like anyone else, 
only better. It can be seen whether or not he is looking 
for something, a play ground, or other ducks, by the 
way he turns his head and by the irregular course he 
keeps. On such occasions he is not going fast. As a 


62 


WING SHOOTING 


general rule birds which are hying alone or in pairs are 
not winging so rapidly as those in full flocks. Fowl in 
flocks have to keep the pace and it usually seems to be 
set by some old sprinter. Birds high in the air have 
a more uniform speed than those near the water, but 
it has always appeared to me that the fastest fellows 
were those that nearly skimmed the water, especially 
when they had just dropped from a height and were 
making wide circles. 

While the speed of the bird is always a subject for 
good judgment and is never certain, owing to the ability 
of the bird to fly at the rate he feels inclined, yet, 
fortunately we have reliable figures for the speed of our 
missiles. We will, therefore, give the average velocity, 
time over the course, and theoretical lead for some of 
our most common loads. In giving the lead we will 
take the rate of flight at sixty feet a second, not because 
that is the true rate, but for the reason that we shall 
have to arbitrarily select some speed or other, and 
sixty feet is about the minimum rate we have to deal 
with. Ballistics of the upland loads will be taken at 
distances up to 40 yards and waterfowl cartridges from 
forty to sixty yards. In giving lead the birds will 
always be considered as flying at right angles to the 
gun, and from this data the lead allowance for quarter¬ 
ing birds can be reckoned. 


SPEED OF BIRDS AWING 


63 


12 BORE. UPLAND CARTRIDGE 
No. 9 Shot 


Load 

Muzzle 
Velocity 
Ft. sec. 

Remain. 

Velocity, 

Ft. sec. 

Average 

Velocity, 

Ft. sec. 

Distance, 

Yards 

Time over 

the course, 

Seconds 

Theoreti¬ 

cal Lead, 
Feet 

Energy 

per Pellet, 

| Ft. lbs. 

Pow¬ 

der 

Dr. 

Shot 

3 

1F6-9 

1290 

900 

1 136 

20 

.0528 

3 l68 

i -34 

3 

1K-9 

1290 

775 

1062 

2 5 

.0706 

4.236 

1.00 

3 

1FG9 

1290 

680 

1025 

3 ° 

.0878 

5.264 

•77 

3 

1 bs -9 

1290 

600 

945 

35 

.1110 

6.660 

.60 

3 ' 

1 >8-9 

1290 

53 o 

900 

40 

• 1 395 

8.370 

•47 


No. 8 Shot 


3 

1 >8—8 

1290 

920 

1147 

20 

.0523 

3 

138 

2.00 

3 

1 Ts—8 

1290 

815 

1083 

2 5 

.0692 

4 

1 52 

1.58 

3 

I >8-8 

1290 

725 

1050 

30 

.0857 

5 

142 

1 • 25 

3 

1K-8 

1290 

650 

975 

35 

.1075 

6 

45 ° 

1.00 

3 

1 >8-8 

1290 

585 

925 

40 

• I 37 ° 

8 

220 

•83 


No. 7L2 Shot 


3 

1 > 6-7 >2 

I29O 

935 

1160 

20 

•° 5 I 7 

3.to 

2.48 

3 

1 > 8 - 7 ^ 

I29O 

835 

io 95 

2 5 

.0685 

4.112 

1 97 

3 

i> 8 - 7 >£ 

I29O 

750 

1061 

3 ° 

.0848 

5.084 

1.60 

3 

1 3^—7 >2 

I29O 

675 

986 

35 

. 1064 

6.384 

1.28 

3 

I >8 —7 >2 

I29O 

610 

940 

40 

• 1341 

8.046 

1 °5 


No. 7 Shot 


3 

>> 8-7 

1290 

950 

1170 

20 

•0513 

3.070 

2.95 

3 

1 > 6-7 

1290 

850 

n °3 

2 5 

.0680 

4.080 

2.32 

3 

1 > 8-7 

1290 

770 

1070 

3 ° 

.0841 

5.046 

1.92 

3 

1 > 8-7 

1290 

695 

1000 

35 

. 1051 

6.306 

1.56 

3 

1 > 6-7 

1290 

635 

950 

40 

■ I 33 ° 

7.98 

1.32 


These figures, except those for lead were taken from 
the ballistic sheets of the Du Pont Company. Figures 
for average velocity were worked out in accordance 
with time over the course. 

























































64 


WING SHOOTING 


The instrumental velocities of these loads are given 
by the Du Pont Company and are found below, to¬ 
gether with other sizes of shot. 


INSTRUMENTALVELOCITIES,LOAD3 DRAMS, iygOZ.SHOT 


Shot Sizes, 

No. 

Distance, 

Yards 

Instrumental 
Velocity, Ft. Sec. 

2 

40 

995 

3 

40 

980 

4 

40 

962 

5 

40 

945 

6 

40 

920 

7 

40 

902 

1V1 

40 

895 

8 

40 

875 

9 

40 

860 

10 

40 

837 


12 BOREX. WATERFOWL LOADS 
Load 3I/2—1)4) Different Shot Sizes 

40 Yards 


Shot 

Size, 

No. 

Muzzle 

Veloc. 

Re¬ 

main. 

Veloc. 

Aver. 

Veloc. 

Dis¬ 

tance 

Yards 

Time 

over 

Course 

Lead, 

Feet 

Energy 

per 

Pellet 

Lbs. 

2 

1300 

790 

1040 

40 

.1154 

6.824 

6.90 

3 

1300 

770 

1030 

40 

.1167 

7.002 

5.60 

4 

1300 

745 

1012 

40 

. 1176 

7.056 

4.00 

5 

I 3 °° 

720 

995 

40 

. 1206 

7.236 

2-93 

6 

1300 

695 

970 

40 

• I2 37 

7 - 4^3 

2.10 

7 

130° 

670 

95 ° 

40 

.1263 

7-57 

r -45 


45 Yards 


2 

1300 

735 

999 

45 

•L 35 1 

8.196 

5-95 

3 

1300 

710 

985 

45 

• T 37 ° 

8.220 

4.50 

4 

1300 

685 

975 

45 

•1383 

8.298 

3-40 

5 

1300 

658 

955 

45 

•1423 

8.538 

2.45 

6 

1300 

632 

925 

45 

•1463 

8.798 

1 -75 

7 

1300 

605 

900 

45 

. 1508 

9.048 

1.19 








































SPEED OF BIRDS AWING 


65 


50 Yards 


2 

1300 

690 

955 

5 ° 

. 1568 

9.408 

5 - 5 ° 

3 

1300 

665 

945 

5 ° 

h-< 

On 

00 

00 

9.526 

4.25 

4 

1300 

638 

93 2 

5 ° 

. 1608 

9.64 

2.95 

5 

1300 

610 

9°4 

5 ° 

• 1659 

9 95 

2.10 

6 

1300 

580 

880 

5 ° 

. 1710 

10.26 

1 -43 

7 

El 00 

55 ° 

845 

5 ° 

• T 775 

10.65 

•99 


55 Yards 


2 

1300 

650 

920 

55 

.1792 

10.752 

4.65 

3 

1300 

625 

9 ° 5 

55 

. 1821 

10.90 

3 - 5 ° 

4 

1300 

595 

890 

55 

.1851 

11.10 

2 -55 

5 

1300 

565 

860 

55 

•WS 

n.49 

1.80 

6 

1300 

535 

832 

55 

. 1980 

11.88 

1.25 

7 

] 3 °° 

5°5 

800 

55 

. 2068 

12.40 

•83 


60 Yards 


2 

1300 

610 

886 

60 

. 2030 

12.18 

4.12 

3 

1300 

585 

868 

60 

.2071 

12.42 

3.08 

4 

1300 

555 

852 

60 

.2112 

12.66 

2.20 

5 

1300 

5 2 5 

812 

60 

.2191 

! 3 -H 

1 -55 

6 

1300 

495 

79 2 

60 

.2271 

13 ■ 62 

1.06 

7 

I 3 °° 

460 

753 

60 

.2389 

H- 3 2 

.69 


65 Yards 


■2 

1300 

570 

854 

65 

. 2284 

I 3 - 7 ° 

3.60 

3 

1300 

540 

833 

65 

.2340 

1444 

2.62 

4 

1300 

5 IQ 

810 

65 

• 2 394 

14.36 

1.85 

5 

1300 

480 

782 

6 5 

• 249 1 

H -94 

1.30 

6 

1300 

448 

753 

65 

•2589 

I 5-52 

.88 

7 

1300 

4 i 5 

710 

65 

.2747 

16.52 

• 5 6 


70 Yards 


2 

1300 

540 

822 

3 

1300 

5 IQ 

800 

4 

1300 

480 

780 

5 

T 3 °° 

45 ° 

745 

6 

1300 

415 

7*5 

7 

1300 

380 

668 


70 

•2554 

x 5 - 3 2 

3- 2 3 

70 

.2625 

15-75 

2.32 

70 

. 2697 

16.18 

1.65 

70 

.2817 

16.90 

1.14 

70 

•2937 

17.62 

•75 

70 

•3 T 43 

18.85 

•47 
























































66 


WING SHOOTING 


Instrumental Velocity 
Yards. 

No. 2 . 

No. 3 . 

No. 4 . 

No. 5 .. 

No. 6 . 

No. 7 .. 

No. 71^. 

No. 8 . 

No. 9 . 

No. io . 


for The Duck Loads at 40 


Instru. Vel.- 1040 ft. sec. 
Instru. Ve!. 1030 ft. sec. 
Instru. Vel. 1012 ft. sec. 
Instru. Vel. 995 ft. sec. 
Instru. Vel. 970 ft. sec. 
Instru. Vel. 950 ft. sec. 
Instru. Vel. 940 ft. sec. 
Instru. Vel. 925 ft. sec. 
Instru. Vel. 900 ft. sec. 
Instru. Vel. 875 ft. sec 


Space forbids us to take up the many other loads. 
For the uplands three and one-fourth drams and an 
ounce and an eighth of shot is often used and would 
show a bit higher velocity than the cartridge used in 
this table. However, up to forty yards three drams 
of powder has a killing velocity and little difference 
would be found between the two cartridges in practical 
results. 

Many duck shooters would prefer an ounce and an 
eighth of shot to an ounce and a quarter, and this 
cartridge would show somewhat higher velocity, but 
ordinarily the pattern would be thinner. It is much a 
matter of the way the gun handles one load or the other. 

The Super X cartridge has both a higher velocity 
and shoots a more dense pattern, with consequently a 
bit longer range. The Super X Record, in three-inch 
• cases, loaded with 1 % ounces of shot is the most 
powerful twelve gauge shell to be had at this 
time, and perhaps the most powerful that has ever 
been loaded in 12 bore. 

Ten gauge guns in standard loads with an ounce 
and a quarter of shot have little advantage of the 
ordinary twelve shooting the same load of shot, and 
no advantage of the Super X load. In hand-loads, 












SPEED OF BIRDS AWING 


67 

using Progressive burning powders and about 1% 
ounces ot shot the ten would have several yards on a 
good twelve but such shells are not obtainable in fac¬ 
tory loads at this time. 

The smaller gauges, sixteen, twenty, and twenty- 
eight have practically the same velocities as the twelve, 
in the table for upland work. Figures for velocities 
and lead would not be greatly different. Normally 
the big bores, ten and twelve have somewhat higher 
velocities than the smaller gauges, though the latter 
can be speeded up to full twelve bore velocities. 

The tables presented herewith can be studied to 
advantage. They give what the great cartridge con¬ 
cerns rarely do, the average speed over the* course, in 
effect the instrumental velocities at all distances from 
twenty to seventy yards. The remaining velocities 
and the remaining striking energies are also valuable. 
In striking energy a pound and a half to the pellet 
is supposed to be required in order to insure a killing 
penetration with sufficient shock to bring down a duck, 
and by going over the tables the distance at which one 
size of shot or another ceases to be effective can be 
determined. For example, number 7 shot falls under 
the pound and a half beyond forty yards, number 6 
beyond fifty yards, number 5 beyond sixty, fours reach 
seventy, and threes would extend to eighty and be¬ 
yond. Of course the total weight of the blow that 
lands on the bird counts, and the smaller pellets place 
more shot on the mark, which permits sevens to kill 
at a full-fifty yards, sixes at fifty-five or possibly sixty 
in case of small ducks. 

The theoretical lead as given will look excessive to 
a veteran duck shooter, yet it is the actual, mathe¬ 
matical distance that the gun must be aimed ahead of 
the bird in order to hit him when he is flying at the 


68 


WING SHOOTING 


given rate. How the gun gets that far ahead, how 
much is gained by swing is another story. The novice 
who holds ahead the distances given here, and who 
judges his range with any certainty will come pretty 
close to hitting. 


Chapter VII 


SHOOTING QUAIL, WOODCOCK, GROUSE, AND 

SNIPE 

N O one can shoot a game bird well unless he is 
acquainted with the flight of that particular 
bird. He should know the rate of speed, the lead or 
hold, and the tendency to dodge or swerve. Much of 
wing-shooting skill lies in being able to anticipate what 
the bird will do before he does it, and this implies long 
acquaintance as well as close study. Being a good 
judge of ground and cover is also quite important. 
Seeing his dog on point, and glancing over the ground 
a quail shot should be able to predict what the bevy 
will do and where they will go to. It is then his busi¬ 
ness to so place himself as to make his shots easy. 

Knowing his ground and his bird, he ought to be 
able to tell just where the birds will be lying, how 
they will rise and the direction they will take, and 
whether they will rise in a compact bunch or scattered. 
If on the side of a hill or under a hill the birds are 
almost certain to top it. The worst thing the gunner 
can do is to get between quail and the cover to which 
they are bound to go, for they will then beat back 
over his head or around him in a short sharp curve, 
and a towering, overhead shot is next to impossible 
at short range. Such a proceeding as getting between 
the birds and where they mean to go frequently necessi¬ 
tates turning on them after they have gone overhead, 
always a loss of time and a hard shot. So flush as to 

69 


70 


WING SHOOTING 


drive Bob in the direction he will go anyhow, and thus 
get an easy straight away or quartering shot. A 
quartering quail is an easier shot than one driving 
straight from the gun, for the reason that elevations 
are then more readily judged—a straightaway bird 
usually appears to be winging on the level while he 
may be either rising or falling. 

It is rare that a quail needs a lead of more than 
three feet, unless he has been flushed by some one else 
and is passing. A quartering bird is usually led from 
just in front to not over a foot. The tendency of our 
bird when he has been flushed in the open and has a 
flight of from one to two hundred yards to make before 
reaching cover is to rise steadily until he reaches a 
height of from ten to fifteen feet. The aim should then 
be high or the gun should shoot a trifle high, the same 
as a trap gun. An elevation of a foot will frequently 
center a bird which appears to be flying nearly level. 
A great many misses are due to under shooting and 
not many to over shooting. A quick shot is more apt 
to shoot behind than is a deliberate shot for he can 
pull trigger faster than he can move his gun, and if 
he is coming on from behind or beneath is apt to let- 
off a little too soon. 

The roaring rush of a bevy of Bob Whites throw a 
good many sportsmen off balance, and they quicken 
their time until they cannot hit anything. A quail 
in the open cannot escape, if he rises near the gun, 
without giving the shooter an opportunity within easy 
range. The bird ought to be taken with certainty, 
but rarely under twenty yards. The idea of the shooter 
hurrying himself on a bird that rises within ten yards 
is all foolishness. Take time and “set” yourself, but 
when the gun does come up handle it fast. Even in 
the open our quail can dodge, and don’t let him out- 


SHOOTING QUAIL, ETC: 


71 


pace the gun. Don’t try to shoot with your feet all 
tangled up unless astride of brush; get your legs in 
position the first thing, and'then bring up the gun 
and bring it up right. Take time enough to notice 
the direction of the flight, and point close to the line, 
closing the aim swiftly and evenly, but not with a jerk. 

There is no need to cheek the stock as the trap shot 
does, for a gun comes up much more swiftly and more 
easily when the cheek is not against the comb. In a 
snap shot, and much of the work will be snap shooting, 
the final aim, the contact of cheek with stock and 
the pressure of the trigger will all come at the same 
time, or one will follow the other very closely. 

When quail burst out there is little time to pick 
shots, therefore take the very first bird that gets up, 
or the first one that fills the eye, which will give more 
time for the second shot. Even when shooting a gen¬ 
eral impression will be had as to what the other birds 
are doing, and move quickly to the very next one in 
view. If the first bird is taken and the others are 
following, they will have caught up before recovery is 
had from recoil, and the pair ought to be killed within 
thirty feet of one another. If it is necessary to fire 
two shots at a bird the second barrel should follow 
within twenty-five feet of the first. 

Half the success of woodcock shooting comes from 
knowing the bird, and the other half from having an 
open enough gun. Gun should be very light, rarely 
much over six pounds, open bored, a plain cylinder is 
best, and number nine shot will be about right. 

Considerable advantage will be had from shooting 
over a dog, not only from his finding the birds but from 
the warning he gives to the gun. A bird that rises 
when expected and where expected is another sort of 
a chap from the one that warns merely with his whistle, 


72 


WING SHOOTING 


and has the marksman jumping six directions trying 
to locate him before he gets beyond the underbrush. 
When found in the depth of the woods or marsh the 
cock has the habit of climbing up twenty-five or thirty 
feet, and then dropping away, looking for a new place 
to alight. He is usually in the plainest view and is 
the easiest mark when at the top of his bound. The 
gun should be ready and the snap taken before he 
starts to descend, for he doesn’t remain in sight very 
long after that. 

A woodcock is rather slow of flight when in the 
timber, but can get up considerable speed when flying 
from one thicket to another or crossing an opening. 
Two guns can generally work well together, the one 
inside cover and the other skirting it. Very often our 
bird will leave cover and dash out into the open, not 
rising, there to fly as close to the ground as a snipe, 
shortly to whip back into timber again. The hunter 
on the outside will then have the easiest shooting, and 
will frequently make the larger bag. 

Woodcock sometimes cross open land on their way 
to feeding grounds, making a regular flight, generally 
just before sundown. On such a pass the birds can be 
taken the same as ducks or doves, fly very uniformly, 
and require less lead than a duck. Upon the whole, 
while woodcock shooting is a very fascinating sport, 
no such skill is required as would be found needful 
with grouse or waterfowl. The bird ought to be given 
a decent chance, and only small bore guns used. My 
ideal woodcock gun would be a twenty-eight bore, 
weighing around five pounds. Bags should be strictly 
limited, if not by law then by the sportsman himself. 
The cock really has little chance to escape for if he is 
not killed the first rise, he flies but a little way, and 
ultimately falls to the gun. 


SHOOTING QUAIL, ETC. 


73 


We will include both chickens and, ruffed grouse 
under the term grouse. Prairie chickens, as they 
used to be shot in August were a simple mark. Prairie 
chickens in November or December are as hard to 
approach as so many mallards in an open pondhole. 
They will then rise at forty, fifty, sixty yards or even 
farther. The summer chicken climbs six to eight feet 
high and makes off in a straight line. The same bird 
in winter will keep rising, perhaps for forty feet and 
when he gets to the top of this bound he is some dis¬ 
tance away and “going some” as well. Plenty of 
lead will have to be given if he happens to be crossing the 
gun at fifty yards, and the straight away bird will 
nearly always be rising and rising fast. Hold well 
above and well ahead. 

Americans have a strange way of killing off about 
all the game they have and then passing laws to pro¬ 
tect it. The writer is as guilty as anybody else. I 
remember killing twenty-eight chickens straight, in 
early September when the season used to open, with 
the young birds waiting to be kicked out. The prairie 
chicken which waits for the gun to get within twenty 
yards is a dead bird, the shooter having any skill at 
all. Chickens will take care of themselves; all they 
ask is that no shooting be done before November. 
Forty yards will then be the average rise, and the gun 
which gets within twenty-five yards has had luck. 

The ruffed grouse is both an Eastern and a Western 
bird, but in the mountains of the West he is not such 
a wise bird as he is in the New England states. Sports¬ 
men of the Atlantic regions consider him the king of 
all game birds, and I don’t know but what they are 
right. Ed take more pleasure in bagging five grouse 
than five dozen quail any time. Occasionally the 
partridge affords an easy shot, but the rule is the con- 


74 


WING SHOOTING 


trary. He is a wise bird, and the only one I know 
that can allow the gun to approach within easy range 
time after time and still get off without the loss of a 
feather. If we go into cover after him he will fly right 
out into the open, but the lad that thinks he can get 
easy shots by skirting the brush while his dog flushes 
in the briars will go home without expending many 
shells. The only known rule that applies is that the 
ruffed grouse will always do the things you don’t want 
him to. 

He is an expert about “taking a tree,” about climb¬ 
ing above the open space and into the limbs, about 
flying low among the briars, never showing above their 
tops, about getting up behind you when you have no 
dog, and rising out of gunshot when you have one. 
The only advice I can give is to always shoot. Shoot 
at the flash of his wings if he can’t be seen, shoot at 
his shadow along the ground if the grouse is hidden, 
shoot ahead of the twigs he has just disturbed, shoot 
at the very sound of his roar if nothing can be sighted 
—sometimes he will be hit, and missing is no disgrace. 
When a cock grouse is bagged, take it for granted that 
no finer feat of marksmanship was ever performed by 
anybody since the smooth bore was invented. 

One barrel of the gun should be open bored and the 
other well choked. Most of the shots will be at short 
range, but occasionally a grouse will wing across an 
opening forty or fifty yards away, and it is well to be 
ready for him. Shot should be sevens or sixes, driven 
at stiff velocity, for twigs may have to be cut through. 
Don’t count shells against dead birds—no partridge 
shooter does that. 

More wild yarns have been told concerning the 
difficulties of snipe shooting than any other bird. For 
a generation or two every “office gunner” and sporting 


SHOOTING QUAIL, ETC. 


75 


writer repeated the old yarn about waiting for a snipe 
to settle down and quit his corkscrewing and wabbling 
before the shot was taken. I don’t know who started 
that kind of stuff, maybe Frank Forester or Lewis— 
anyhow it was passed along from book to book and 
sketch to sketch. In any event, the bird always settled 
down to a steady flight after going some forty yards, 
and then the shot was a. very simple one. The whole 
idea is as big a fool thing as was ever promulgated by 
men of ordinary sense. The man who waited for a 
snipe to fly forty yards, no matter if he were then as 
steady as a hawk standing in air, would miss half his 
birds, for a jack snipe is a small mark at fifty yards. 
Matter of fact there is no point where he will settle 
down to a steady flight, and the farther he gets from 
the gun the more difficult the shot. 

The manner of a snipe’s flight mostly depends on 
the weather. In cold, windy weather he will rise wild, 
beat against the wind usually in a fairly straight line, 
that is, his general line of flight will be pretty direct, 
but in his efforts to get his long wings to beating fast 
enough he will wabble in all directions. Take this wild 
flight in connection with an equally wild rise, often 
he will get up forty yards away, and he is a hard mark. 
Take the same bird in good cover, when the day is 
warm and sunny, when he has fed well and is lazy, and 
he will go away in long, easy tacks, every reach plenty 
lengthy enough for a fast gun to catch him with a 
straight snap. On such days snipe may get up at 
the hunter’s feet, and he is so slow in getting out of 
range that the marksman can take his own time. 

The wildfowl shot with his fixed habit of swinging 
after his mark is rarely so good* on snipe as he is on 
ducks, but the grouse shot or the quail shot ought to 
be. The bird is to be snapped. Get the piece up close 


76 


WING SHOOTING 


under him just when he has reached one of his long 
bounds, and his next tack which should be not less 
than fifteen feet can be easily intercepted with a quick 
upward snap. If the first barrel doesn’t catch him 
the second ought to, and where three grouse in fifteen 
shots is not bad work or six quail in ten, eight snipe 
in ten should be hit. Always provided the birds are 
lying well enough to get up within forty feet of the gun. 

The whole difficulty of snipe shooting can be judged 
by the length of the rise. Birds that are regularly get¬ 
ting up within twenty to forty feet of the gun are tame 
and lazy; they are rarely a difficult mark. Snipe that 
rise between twenty and thirty yards can be killed 
sometimes, sometimes not. They afford a good sport¬ 
ing chance, now corkscrewing off, and again swing 
around the gun. Snipe which will not permit a closer 
approach than thirty-five yards before flushing can be 
killed, by luck. The apparently straight away shot 
is the hardest. The longbill’s little jerky movements 
may then be too rapid to be anticipated with any 
certainty. 

This so-called corkscrewing is really a swerving from 
side to side, as will be seen if the bird can be induced 
to fly across the gun. It follows that if snipe prove 
wild an effort should be made to induce them to give 
passing and quartering shots. The best fixed habit of 
the bird is to rise against the wind, particularly when 
considerable breeze is stirring. The old-time direction 
to hunt down wind is then quite correct. Jack will 
not only rise against the wind, but he is liable to fly 
into it for some little distance before turning. It 
doesn’t matter, the wind or the weather, or the wild¬ 
ness of the bird, if ho tries to beat back past the gun 
under forty yards, he is taking a grave risk, where the 
marksman knows his snipe. 


SHOOTING QUAIL, ETC. 


77 


The sum and substance of it all is that tame snipe, 
the big, lazy, full-fed fellows, who say “scaipe” not 
ten yards from the gun, content to drop back into the 
marsh after a flight of fifty yards, are among the easiest 
birds that the wingshot has to deal with. The man 
who cannot stop a big percentage, with ease and cer¬ 
tainty, has faulty methods of some kind. He is either 
trying to wait out his bird, he is swinging where he 
should snap or half snap, his gun is over-choked for 
close shots, he lacks self-confidence, or he just simply 
can’t shoot anyhow. 

A good snipe dog is a nice thing, partly because any 
good dog is. His nose must be excellent and he must 
have sense enough to work to and for the gun or he 
will do more harm than good. Of course the dog 
should be given the benefit of the wind, and this means 
a greater number of birds rising wild and going straight 
away. If snipe are plentiful and tame I prefer shoot¬ 
ing over a dog; if they are wild more birds can be 
bagged without our canine assistant. 

Choice of shot lies between eights and nines. Num¬ 
ber ten shot are often used, but they are easily drifted 
by a moderate wind, and have no advantage of nines 
anyhow. If a small bore gun is used, sixteen or twenty, 
one barrel should be modified and the other full choke. 
A twelve bore might have both barrels modified. 
Many shots have to be taken at forty yards and more, 
whereupon the cylinder we have found so useful with 
the woodcock and grouse leads to much needless 
missing. 


WING SHOOTING 


78 

A PAGE OF DON’TS 

The English sense of things that are not done is that 
it means things that should not be done—simply 
another form of don’t do it. 

No matter the temptation, don’t shoot a duck on the 
water or a game bird on the ground. I know the advice 
would appear needless, but I have seen so many birds 
killed on water by men who knew better. 

Don’t loan a gun to anybody. A man’s gun and his 
shoes do not fit so well after being used by others. The 
writer usually keeps one gun which he loans to people 
who are hard to deny, but he never shoots that gun 
himself. 

Don’t take the left side all the time when approaching 
a standing dog. It is the easiest side to shoot from, if a 
right hand shooter, so don’t ask for the best of it all the 
time. 

If the other fellow persists in taking birds going to 
your side, don’t say anything; accept his excuses smil¬ 
ingly, don’t try to serve him in like manner—go without 
him next time and ever thereafter. 

Don’t try to kill birds farther than the gun will reach. 
Shooting on the off-chance of bringing down a bird that 
is out of range is malicious cruelty. 

Don’t try to “wipe the other fellow’s eye’’ until he has 
tried with both barrels. He is naturally anxious to 
retrieve a miss with his second barrel, and will be 
irritated if denied the opportunity. 

Don’t pick up another man’s gun and snap it. - He 
might not like to tell you what he thinks of the per¬ 
formance, and then again he might tell you. 

Don’t ask, or accept any favors from a man who may 
be able to outshoot you. That kind of thing destroys 
self respect. * 


Chapter VIII 


DUCK AND OTHER WATERFOWL 

^\UCK shooting is the billiards of gunnery. Shoot- 
ing beyond thirty yards, with a full choked gun,, 
every shot must be calculated for, and the shots are 
infinite in variety. Now the birds will be rising, now 
dropping in, now going straight away, now coming 
directly in, now high now low, now at forty yards, 
now fifty, sixty, passing at right angles, passing and 
quartering as the fowl goes away, quartering in and 
quartering out, towering only to break the jump and 
veer off sharply—rarely two shots the same unless 
the marksman shoots over decoys or waits for birds 
to come close in and takes no others. 

I have some doubts as to whether shooting over 
decoys ought to be permitted or whether it always will 
be permitted or not. Shooting decoyed ducks is simple 
enough, and many a man can make a good bag over 
the blocks who would make a sorry showing if forced 
to take passing birds at ranges up to sixty yards. If 
the birds are not actually allowed to alight and taken 
on the water, as sometimes happens, they are shot 
after they have set their wings and are slowly easing 
down to the water. That is like shooting at a tin can 
with a windbreak attached to it so as to make it 
descend more slowly. After the first shot, if the bird 
is a mallard, pintail, or greenwing teal, the climb will 
be almost straight upward. The hold is then one foot 
above the duck’s head at twenty-five yards, and two 

79 


8 o 


WING SHOOTING 


feet at forty, up to four feet at fifty. Canvasbacks, 
bluebills and redheads are slow about getting away and 
climb out at an angle of from twenty to forty-five 
degrees. The bluebill climbs up the highest and the 
canvasback goes off closer to the water than other 
ducks except possibly the bluewing teal. The trick 
of taking these birds and where to hold is easily ac¬ 
quired, and the gunner may think he is then a finished 
duck shot, though he really knows little about lead. 

Shooting passing birds would be simple enough, if a 
man knew lead and could judge distance, and had an 
even swing. The mark is fairly large, usually the sky 
is the background and sighting is no trouble, plenty 
of time is afforded, as a rule, and the shooter has no 
need to hurry himself, he can pick his own spot for 
driving in the first load, either before the fowl reaches 
him, overhead, or after the duck has passed. I could 
give the lead for any sort of shot, the lead that works 
with my swing, but the chances are it would be wrong 
for the very next man. Judging distance is the great 
stumbling block of the duck shooter, and it is some¬ 
thing that not one man in the hundred thousand will 
ever learn well enough. 

Fred Kimble knew his lead up to eighty yards, and 
I might add he had an eighty yard gun to test it out 
with. Not many of us have any such gun and never 
will have. Kimble’s gun was a six bore, carrying an 
ounce and a half of number 3 shot, backed by six 
drams of powder. From all evidence it would kill 
regularly at eighty yards, for the entire load went into 
a thirty inch circle at forty yards, and the big shot 
retained both pattern and energy up to the distance. 
Today we cannot learn to shoot ducks at eighty yards 
because we have no gun with which to verify our 
lead. Given a gun which will surely kill when held 


DUCK AND OTHER WATERFOWL 81 

right and we can change our lead until we have learned 
the hold. Once having learned it, it works like black 
magic, the birds dropping at amazing distances. But 
if the gun fails us, and as a consequence we change a 
lead that was right—well—there you are. Nothing 
more is to be learned with that gun. 

Lead is usually taken in lengths of the fowl, not 
in feet, though of course we can translate into feet. 
A large duck, pintail, canvasback, mallard, is usually 
taken at a length of two feet. Teal and bluebills, 
lesser bluebills, called blackjacks sometimes, are given 
a length of but one foot in allowing for lead. Kimble’s 
lead, with which doubtless other expert shots would 
agree, was one length of the bird at forty yards, three 
lengths at sixty, and six at eighty. My own lead 
would probably be nearer that of the average duck 
shooter, and is a length and a half at forty yards, on 
mallards and pintails, two lengths at fifty yards and 
three at sixty. Beyond that distance I have never 
had a gun that was reliable. 

Suppose we accept my lead as correct, how do we 
know the bird is forty yards away or fifty or sixty or 
more. We do not know unless we have a chance or 
have had a chance to shoot a lot of ducks. There is 
no way to learn except to estimate and verify the esti¬ 
mate by hitting until results prove the pudding. Dis¬ 
tances are estimated, first by the markings and second 
by the apparent size of the bird. If, say pintails, are 
so high or so far away that the drakes cannot be dis¬ 
tinguished from the ducks, be sure that they are about 
out of gun range, not less than fifty yards in a bad 
light or sixty in a good light. If sex markings are 
readily distinguished, the white of the breast or on 
the neck clearly outlined, the bird should be within 
range and probably is not over forty yards. If the 


82 


WING SHOOTING 


duck’s eyes can be seen, hold at the point of his bill. 

Another thing that gives us a line on distance is 
the apparent size of the fowl. A mallard or pintail 
within twenty yards of the gun will look his full size, 
nearly two feet long and with plenty of wing spread. 
At sixty yards he won’t look over a foot long, and a 
teal will not appear much larger than a quail. Any 
time large ducks seem small, or they are all of one 
color, a kind of dark drab, they are far enough away 
to demand plenty of lead, about one-half more lead 
than thev usually get. Take a pintail when he looks 
about the size of a whippoorwill, and the man who kills 
him is a dandy, and I’d like to own his gun. Mallard 
drakes can be distinguished from the ducks at seventy 
yards, when high in the air, and if they cannot be so 
distinguished, pass ’em up. Of course if the bird were 
near the ground we could distinguish him from the 
hen bird much farther, a hundred yards off and maybe 
more. It is the high birds which look small and in 
which the colors blend. Let me say now that these 
tall birds are rarely so high as they look at that, and 
the most startling kills are those made straight over 
head when the fowl looks to be quite out of gunshot 
but is not. There is something queer about elevation 
making objects look small. A man on top of a four hun¬ 
dred foot tower looks like a small child, while the same 
man four hundred feet distant on the ground appears 
normal size. Don’t give the straight over-head birds 
so much lead as those hying to one side, and try ’em 
for luck. 

Of course the big ducks and the little fellows, not 
to mention geese, require close study. Few of us can 
get over a fixed belief that geese are closer than they 
really are, and few of us can get it out of our heads 
that teal are out of range when no more than fifty 


DUCK AND OTHER WATERFOWL 


83 


yards off. Only the other day I crawled up to what 

1 considered shooting range of a lone goose. I judged 
that I was within fifty yards or not more than sixty 
at the outside. I had a ten bore gun loaded with 

2 ounces of number 3 shot. The bird saw me indis¬ 
tinctly and I thought him a fool and a dead one, stand¬ 
ing up there like a soldier on parade. I knew that if 
I made him jump he would be another ten yards away 
before I could shoot, so I took him as he stood. The 
load never feased him nor the second barrel either. I 
stepped off" the distance and found it to be eighty yards. 

The straight overhead and the overhead incomer 
have always seemed to me to be the easiest shots to 
acquire. The old instructions were to pull up under 
the bird, pass him until he was covered and hidden, 
and pull trigger without stopping the gun. The advice 
was good, though if a man shoots with both eyes open 
the bird will not be hidden at any time. Just getting 
in front of ducks, if they are under forty yards, or 
not much over a hundred feet high, kills them when 
I shoot, but if they are upward of forty yards high 
considerable lead must be given, up to six feet. I 
have never killed many overhead birds by leading 
* them more than that distance. 

If the marksman is pretty safe on his overhead in¬ 
comers, both birds from the flock should be taken 
before they reach the gun. Take the first bird twenty 
yards before he reaches the stand, and the next one 
can be caught just before he is straight overhead. This 
turning on ducks to take them from the rear, unless 
an automatic is used and the gunner is bent on empty¬ 
ing it, is all wrong. I have heard about it being im¬ 
possible to penetrate the feathers of a duck s breast 
when he is coming in, but that is sheer nonsense. I 
have shot at the breast of a large duck when he was 


8 4 


WING SHOOTING 


forty-five to fifty yards off, with number 7 shot, the 
pellets entering the breast and coming out at the back. 
Men are prolific of excuses when they fail to hit, and 
the idea that they hit all right but the shot glanced 
off is one of the simplest. I have been hearing about 
the breast feathers turning shot for forty years, have 
been shooting ducks that long, and never lost a duck 
anywhere close to me from the shot failing to pene¬ 
trate the breast. I knew one chump who refused to 
shoot at ducks until they had passed the gun; he didn’t 
kill many at that. 

The turning shot is a hard one when the fowls have 
passed directly overhead. It is practically impossible 
to swing a gun down, and the bird must be intercepted 
with a still gun, held low for lead. The higher the 
duck the lower the hold. If the birds are to one side 
the rear shot is easier and more deadly, for less lead 
is required than would be needed for the right angle 
shot. Even then the lead is liable to be complicated. 
Ordinarily, where the duck flew steadily onward, the 
hold would be in front and a trifle low, but very often 
this is complicated by the bird towering and flaring, 
as he sees the gun come into action. The hold instead 
of being low may then have to be high. I have known 
ducks to flare and wheel away so sharply that the 
allowance had to be made in what was originally his 
rear. By knowing the flight habits of the particular 
species it can sometimes be foretold how much they 
will tower or flare at sight of the gun, and sometimes 
they can be caught at the top of a bound without 
any lead—shooting straight at them and missing about 
two times in three, I might add. Shooting a duck is 
something like roping a wise broncho. So long as 
he is standing still and watching you, he can dodge 
the rope, but get him to moving so that he can’t stop 
and he is caught. 


DUCK AND OTHER WATERFOWL 


85 


Shooting passing ducks inside of forty yards is not 
especially difficult. The man who is content to refuse 
all shots that are not within easy range can soon get 
a reputation for being a good duck shot. Lead up to 
five feet is readily acquired, and the gun can be made 
to help. An improved cylinder twelve bore will kill 
a lot of ducks at short range, and it will cover fifty 
inches at forty yards, thus making amends for a lead 
that is not very accurate. I have known gunners who 
would refuse birds that were over thirty yards off, 
and with an open gun and a lead of anywhere from a 
foot to three foot, ducks would be killed pretty con¬ 
sistently. The real beauty and the real enticement 
of waterfowl shooting lies in being able to take the 
birds up to a full sixty yards. 

We are, of course, writing chiefly for the benefit of 
the beginner; the expert shot is not going to learn 
anything from a book. Our novice is entitled to take 
every legitimate advantage. One advantage will lie 
in the gun, and, as we have seen with other game, he 
doesn’t want a gun which shoots too close. At best 
he can’t take his birds at outside ranges, and close up 
a modified or even a cylinder bore will be more effec¬ 
tive than any full choke. When he is getting most of 
the fowl under forty yards it is time to think of full 
choked gun and long range shells. For the first year 
or two, under present conditions, he will have enough 
to do to master an open bored gun. 

All of us have our limitations, and few Kimbles are 
being trained in duck shooting today. Half of us are 
“out-gunned” without knowing it, and three-fourths 
of the other half know it and can’t help it. The writer 
shot ducks in a day when there were numbers of the 
fowl and no bag limits, with practically no closed 
season; he has been at it consistently this many a 


86 


WING SHOOTING 


year, but was recently outgunned by a big ten bore. 
His duck gun is a twelve bore, 32-inch barrels, both 
full choked, shooting into less than a thirty-inch circle 
at forty yards, with the killing spread, over eighty 
per cent of the load going into the pattern. He can 
handle that gun pretty well, and knows his lead under 
average conditions up to sixty yards. Becoming ambi¬ 
tious to trip his mallard up to eighty yards, he got 
hold of a heavy ten gauge, and loaded it with 46 grains 
of De Luxe and two ounces of number 3 shot. Pat¬ 
terns ran about 170 at forty yards, that is a full ounce 
and a half of shot went into the thirty-inch circle, at 
good velocity. Trying the arm on sitting birds it was 
learned that they could be killed away out on the 
water. Then they were tried awing, and at distances 
around seventy or eighty yards misses were very con¬ 
sistent. Given enough ducks and enough time, prob¬ 
ably he could learn to use that gun, but can’t kill any 
farther with it now than with the twelve, notwith¬ 
standing the big gun patterns as many number 3 shot 
as the twelve does fours. He is outgunned, and ninety- 
nine duck shooters in the hundred would find them¬ 
selves in like predicament. The only moral to this 
story is, procure a gun that you can hit with. 

Goose shooting is no different from duck shooting 
except for the difficulty of judging the distance of the 
great birds. They fly at about the same rate as ducks, 
and a like lead will account for one fowl as well as 
the other. Whether conscious of it or not, the wild- 
fowler is certain to judge distance by apparent size of 
the mark, and unless trained on geese, will under¬ 
estimate their distance. All the advice the writer can 
give is to get the big birds in as close as they will 
come, and use big shot. Don’t let anybody fool you 
about hitting geese in the head or neck with sevens 


DUCK AND OTHER WATERFOWL 


87 


and sixes.. Certainly that can be done and has been 
done, but about nine times in ten the birds will be 
somewhere from forty to eighty yards off. We can’t 
be sure of landing on the head of a goose at forty yards 
with sixes, for the mark is small and open spaces are 
in all patterns. Doubting this, try sixes on quail or 
snipe at forty yards and upward. 

Going out for ducks, not very long ago, I put two 
shells loaded with Bs in my pocket, on the possibility 
of getting a shot at geese. Two geese passed at pretty 
long range, a full seventy-five yards, and one was 
dropped by the use of the two heavy cartr’dges. The 
remaining bird refused to leave but circled about, 
always at long range but still not any farther away 
than the first goose had been when killed. Four shots 
were fired at him with number three shot and then he 
went off about his business. Number 2 shot are the 
smallest adapted to goose shooting, and I believe that 
number is or Bs are better. For flight shooting geese, 
the gun must have power and range, neither of which 
is to be had with fine shot. Decoyed geese are like 
ducks and can be killed with any sort of a gun, even a 
twenty-eight bore. 

In closing permit me to extend a greeting to all good 
shooting men. They are all friends of mine, lodge 
brothers in the great fraternity of men who love the 
gun, and, yea, with a yet greater love for the wild 
things that fall to their aim. Good fellows all! Even 
for the men who shoot decoyed fowl upon the water 
or who bait birds and then kill them, 1 can but express 
the hope that time will show them the error of their 
ways. 

Here is to the mallard. A noble sporting gentleman, 
king of the wildfowl tribe, without a peer, “the noblest 
Roman of them all.” Beautiful as a bird of paradise, 


88 


WING SHOOTING 


wise as a crow, wary as a hawk, fast as a falcon, hardy 
and brave; and strong—may his kingdom last forever. 
Every shooting man could be converted to the religion 
of the Christian or the Jew if he knew that on the 
other side he would find the mallard, the ruffed grouse, 
and the quail. 


THE END. 


Other Books for Hunters 

“Big Game Hunting” 

Recreation Outdoor Library, Book 7 
By Major Townsend Whelen 
Published June 15 , 1923 — Price, 50 cents 

“Gun and Rifle Facts” 

Recreation Outdoor Library, Book 8 
By Capt. E. C. Crossman 
Published June 22 , 1923 — Price, 50 cents 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

From GUN AND RIFLE FACTS 

By Capt. E. C. Crossman 

THE RIFLE THE SHOTGUN 

1 . Guns for the Heaviest Game T For Upland Birds 

2. For American Big Game 

Rifles Fitting the Gun 

Cartridges 2. For “ Brother Webfoot” 

The C hoice of a Rifle 3 The Trap Gun 

3. Rifles for Lesser Game THE ONE-HAND GUN 

4. The Small Bore 1. For Popping Around 

5. Small Bore Bullseye \ £ or General Purposes 

Punchers 3. Tor Target Shooting 

r. XT' a „ t, CLEANING YOUR GUN 

6 . For the Small Boy j Cause of Rust 

7. Sights 2. Solvents and Their Use 


Order from Your Sporting Goods Dealer or from 

OUTERS’-RECREATION 










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0 002 886 496 6 



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